OMMONWEALTH  OR  EMPIRE 


GOLDW/M  6V/1II 


''•• 


I    ! 


Commonwealth  or  Empire 


A    BYSTANDER'S    VIEW   OF 
THE    QUESTION 


BY 


GOLDWIN  SMITH,   D.C.L. 

EMERITUS    PROFESSOR    OF    CORNELL    UNIVERSITY  ;    AUTHOR    OF 
"THE    UNITED    STATES,"     "THE    UNITED    KINGDOM  I 


gotfc 
THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 
1902 

All  rights  reserved 


COPYRIGHT,  1902, 
BY  THE  MACMILLAN  COMPANY. 

Set  up  and  clectrotyped  March,  1902. 


J.  8.  Cuihing  &  Co.  —  Berwick  &  Smith 
Norwood  Mass.  U.S.A. 


COMMONWEALTH    OR    EMPIRE 

IN  the  last  Presidential  election  issues  were 
mixed.  The  verdict  consequently  was  uncer 
tain.  Which  issue  was  paramount  was  a 
question  greatly  debated  among  Americans. 
Some  said  currency  was  paramount,  and  voted 
against  a  debasement  of  the  coin  which  would 
no  doubt  have  led  to  commercial  disaster,  and 
could  have  attractions  only  as  a  measure  of  par 
tial  relief,  at  a  period  of  depression  and  suffer 
ing  from  mortgage  debt.  Alarm  was  at  the  same 
time  created  and  votes  probably  were  deter 
mined  by  language  menacing  to  the  Supreme 
Court  and  judicial  authority  in  general,  as  well 
as  by  denunciations  of  the  action  of  the  Federal 
Government  in  the  suppression  of  labour  riots. 
But  let  the  paramount  issue  for  Americans 
be  what  it  might,  for  the  world  at  large  it 

X 

765983 


2  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

was  and  is  that  between  the  Commonwealth 
and  Empire.  Shall  the  American  Republic  be 
what  it  has  hitherto  been,  follow  its  own  des 
tiny,  and  do  what  it  can  to  fulfil  the  special 
hopes  which  humanity  has  founded  on  it;  or 
shall  it  slide  into  an  imitation  of  European 
Imperialism,  and  be  drawn,  with  the  military 
powers  of  Europe,  into  a  career  of  conquest 
and  domination  over  subject  races,  with  the 
political  liabilities  which  such  a  career  entails? 
This  was  and  is  the  main  issue  for  humanity. 
Seldom  has  a  nation  been  brought  so  distinctly 
as  the  American  nation  now  is  to  the  parting 
of  the  ways.  Never  has  a  nation's  choice  been 
more  important  to  mankind. 

Against  the  Commonwealth  three  forces, 
distinct  but  convergent,  are  now  arrayed. 
They  are  Plutocracy,  Militarism,  and  Impe 
rialism.  The  three  instinctively  conspire;  to 
the  plutocrat  Imperialism  is  politically  conge 
nial,  while  he  feels  that  militarism  impregnates 
society  with  a  spirit  of  conservatism,  and  may 
in  case  of  a  conflict  of  classes  furnish  a  useful 
force  of  repression. 

Puritan  New  England  could  not  last,  though 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  3 

it  formed  the  foundation  and  has  left  traces 
of  itself  in  the  moral  force  which  in  this  elec 
tion  offered  a  notable  resistance  to  the  tidal 
wave.  The  Puritan  settlement  and  the  United 
States  in  general  were  bound  to  undergo  the 
influences  of  the  world's  progress,  share  the  ad 
vance  of  thought,  and  be  embraced  in  the  world- 
unifying  influences  of  electricity  and  steam. 
Before  the  close  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
in  fact,  vital  change  had  set  in.  The  origi 
nal  elements  were  largely  diluted  by  foreign 
inflow,  though  this  has  been  assimilated  to  a 
wonderful  extent.  Still,  the  American  Repub 
lic  was  the  home  of  democracy  and  the  hope 
of  labour.  It  promised  to  do  something  more 
than  the  Old  World  toward  correcting  the  injus 
tice  of  nature,  equalizing  the  human  lot,  and 
making  the  community  a  community  indeed. 
The  eyes  of  the  masses  everywhere  were  turned 
to  it.  To  the  enemies  of  equality  and  popular 
government  it  was  an  object  of  aversion  and 
alarm.  Loud,  almost  frenzied,  was  the  shout 
of  exultation  with  which,  at  the  outbreak  of 
Secession,  Aristocracy  and  Plutocracy  in  Eu 
rope  hailed  its  apparent  fall.  It  had  remained 


4  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

free  from  Socialism,  other  than  imported,  thus 
proving  the  soundness  of  its  principle,  which 
is  that  of  freedom,  self-help,  and  self-develop 
ment  under  the  necessary  restraints  of  the  law. 
Nowhere  is  English  life  better  or  more 
attractive  than  in  a  country  parish,  with  a  kind 
and  conscientious  squire,  good  ladies,  an  active 
pastor,  a  well-to-do  tenantry,  and  a  contented 
peasantry.  Yet  passing  from  this  to  an  Amer 
ican  village,  an  observer  felt  that  he  had  come 
to  something  which  had  more  of  the  true  spirit 
of  a  community.  He  felt  that  by  the  social 
equality  and  general  friendliness  which  pre 
vailed,  by  the  spontaneous  obedience  to  law 
which  had  no  force  to  support  it  but  that  of 
a  single  constable,  by  the  general  intelligence 
and  the  common  interest  in  public  questions, 
one  step  at  least  had  been  made  towards  some 
thing  like  the  fulfilment  of  the  social  ideal. 
In  the  great  cities,  besides  the  special  influences 
of  city  life,  there  were  unassimilated  immigra 
tion  and  de-Americanized  wealth.  But,  setting 
aside  these  two  elements,  there  was  more  of  the 
community  in  an  American  than  in  a  Euro 
pean  city,  and  this  in  spite  of  municipal  mis- 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  5 

government  carried  in  some  cases  to  an  extent 
which  all  deplore. 

If  the  Commonwealth  partly  lost  its  old 
Puritan  support  in  the  East,  in  the  West  there 
had  been  developed  a  social  and  political  ele 
ment  more  energetically  democratic,  while  it 
was  entirely  free  from  ecclesiastical  restraint. 
The  thoroughly  American  spirit  of  the  West 
was  shown  by  the  part  which  it  played  on  the 
side  of  the  Union  in  the  Civil  War.  Its  tem 
per  is  radically  opposed  to  anything  monarchi 
cal  or  aristocratic;  and  if  it  has  on  this 
occasion  voted  for  a  policy  of  aggrandizement 
and  war,  the  cause  seems  to  be  rather  a  vehe 
mence  of  character  still  breathing  of  frontier 
life,  than  anything  which  would  render  the 
West  more  prone  to  Imperialism  than  New 
England. 

There  appeared  to  be  the  best  reason,  at 
all  events,  for  hoping  that  humanity  had  here 
been  finally  rid  of  two  of  its  greatest  banes  in 
the  Old  World,  —  standing  armies  and  State 
Churches.  Of  State  Churches  it  had  apparently 
seen  the  last  vestige  depart  when  religious 
liberty  and  equality  finally  triumphed  over  the 


6  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

lingering  vestiges  of  Puritan  ecclesiasticism  in 
New  England;  though  the  intermeddling  of 
Churches  with  politics,  which  is  another  phase 
of  the  same  evil,  unhappily  had  not  ceased.  Of 
the  growth  of  a  standing  army,  it  seemed,  there 
could  be  no  danger  when  there  was  no  danger 
of  war ;  the  only  military  force  necessary  being 
one  sufficient  to  secure  at  need  the  ascendency 
of  order  in  a  Commonwealth  which  was  daily 
receiving  foreign  elements  little  imbued  with 
the  freeman's  respect  for  law.  The  vast  army 
called  out  in  defence  of  the  Union  against  Se 
cession  remained  in  spirit  an  army  of  citizens ; 
the  war  over,  it  was  disbanded  with  perfect 
ease,  and  fell  back  into  the  ranks  of  industry, 
much  to  the  amazement  and  not  a  little  to  the 
disappointment  of  European  ill-wishers  of  the 
Republic,  who,  looking  to  European  experience, 
fancied  that  a  despotism  founded  on  the  sup 
port  of  the  victorious  soldiery  must  be  the 
outcome  of  the  war.  It  seemed  that  peace 
might  be  preached  to  all  nations  and  govern 
ments  more  effectually  than  any  International 
Conference  could  preach  it  by  the  spectacle 
of  a  mighty  nation  thriving  beyond  the  other 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  7 

nations  by  industry  and  living  on  friendly 
terms  with  all  its  fellows,  yet  respected  by  the 
world,  and  influencing  the  world  by  its  example. 
If  the  national  life  which  had  produced  and 
which  sustained  the  institutions,  civilization,  and 
wealth  of  the  United  States  was  not  "strenu 
ous  "  in  the  way  of  aggression  and  destruction, 
there  was  another  way  in  which  it  was  strenuous 
in  the  highest  degree.  If  compared  with  old 
war  powers  it  lacked  the  glory  of  war,  at  least 
of  wars  of  rapine,  it  did  not  lack  the  glory  of 
peace  and  home. 

But  a  new  force  has  come  upon  the  scene, 
that  of  Plutocracy,  which,  if  its  power  contin 
ues  to  increase,  must  work  a  serious  change 
in  the  spirit  of  institutions,  though  it  may 
be  without  disturbing  Republican  forms  and 
names.  The  productions  of  a  new  and  im 
mensely  rich  continent,  rapidly  developed  and 
manipulated  commercially  by  master  hands, 
railway  and  telegraph  construction  on  the 
largest  scale,  financial  speculation  on  a  scale 
equally  large,  combined  with  the  action  of 
protective  tariffs,  which  have  enabled  groups 
of  capitalists  to  take  toll  of  the  consumer, 


8  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

have  given  birth  to  fortunes  unprecedented 
in  their  magnitude,  and  having,  through  the 
influence  wielded  by  their  possessors  over 
the  financial  and  commercial  world,  a  con 
stant  tendency  to  increase.  There  is  now  an 
apparent  prospect  of  still  further  concentra 
tion,  and  of  fortunes  still  more  swollen,  since 
the  forces  of  commercial  and  industrial  aggre 
gation  have  begun  to  work,  creating  gigantic 
Trusts,  the  largest  share  of  the  profits  of 
which  fall  to  those  by  whom  the  Trust  is 
organized  and  managed.  The  revenues  of 
one  of  the  multimillionnaires  already  exceed 
those  of  kings.  They  far  exceed  the  reve 
nues  of  that  Thellusson  estate,  the  magnitude 
of  which  frightened  the  British  Parliament  into 
an  Act  restricting  accumulations  for  the  future. 
The  power  of  wealth  in  the  present  age 
is  great.  Nor  can  we  easily  see  what  there 
will  be  to  balance  it.  Religious  aspirations, 
which  hitherto  have  formed  at  least  some 
thing  of  a  counter-charm,  are  visibly  losing 
their  force.  If  Humanitarian  aspirations  are 
destined  ever  to  supply  their  place,  as  the 
votaries  of  a  religion  of  Humanity  believe, 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  9 

that  hour  has  not  yet  come;  nor  is  there 
anything  at  present  to  herald  its  speedy 
coming.  Wealth,  with  little  regard  to  its 
source,  is  becoming  almost  an  object  of  our 
social  worship.  Intellect,  literary  or  scientific, 
culture,  and  art  may  still  keep  up  a  struggle 
against  riches  for  social  ascendency,  but  they 
will  hardly  be  able  to  hold  their  own.  Popu 
larity  the  multimillionnaire  purchases  with 
ease,  at  a  cost  which  to  him  is  no  sacrifice; 
while  the  community,  even  when  the  munifi 
cence  is  the  noblest,  is  put  rather  too  much  in 
the  attitude  of  receiving  alms. 

That  money  can  command  Legislatures  and 
Municipalities  is  too  well  known.  Of  this 
every  day  produces  proofs.  Over  tariff  legis 
lation  the  nation  seems  to  lose  control,  so 
great  is  the  power  of  a  group  of  protected 
interests  bringing  their  pressure  to  bear  in 
concert  upon  Congress.  The  influence  of 
money  in  elections  is  not  disguised.  A  Senator- 
ship  of  the  United  States  has  been  almost 
openly  bought.  To  carry  a  Presidential  elec 
tion,  the  party  of  the  rich  puts  a  vast  fund 
into  skilful  hands.  Wealth  can  take  posses- 


10  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

sion  of  the  organs  of  the  press,  and  through 
them  influence  opinion;  for  though  a  journal, 
to  keep  up  its  circulation,  must  study  public 
sentiment,  it  may  reciprocally  mould  that  sen 
timent,  not  only  through  its  editorials  but  per 
haps  still  more  through  its  version  of  the 
news.  Very  great,  notoriously,  has  been  the 
power  of  Railway  Companies  in  California 
and  elsewhere;  and  this  power  is  practically 
wielded  by  a  few  hands.  We  should  be  most 
unwilling  to  believe  that  the  Universities,  as 
seems  in  some  quarters  to  be  feared,  are  in 
danger  of  plutocratic  domination. 

There  is  no  use  in  raving  about  anything. 
At  the  same  time  there  is  no  use  in  denying 
that  the  inordinate  accumulation  of  wealth, 
with  the  irresponsible  power  attached  to  it, 
in  a  few  hands,  is  dangerous  to  society  and  to 
the  State.  We  are  told  that  this  tendency 
is  natural;  that  it  is  the  result  of  economic 
forces  against  which  it  is  vain  to  contend. 
Other  things  are  natural  which  yet  are  not 
blessings,  and  which,  if  we  could,  we  would 
avert.  The  present  tendency  to  overcrowding 
in  cities  is  natural,  desirable  it  is  not. 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  II 

Only  an  economical  anarchist  will  desire 
to  array  class  against  class,  labour  against 
capital;  to  interfere  with  the  discharge  by 
the  capitalist  of  his  necessary  function  in  the 
conduct  of  industry ;  to  withhold  from  him 
his  fair  gains ;  or  to  deprive  him  of  his  just 
influence  in  the  political  sphere.  To  the 
capitalist,  as  society  now  is,  we  must  owe 
the  organization  of  great  enterprises  and  the 
execution  of  great  works.  Yet  it  would  surely 
be  an  evil  day  for  the  community  on  which 
supreme  power  should  pass  into  the  irre 
sponsible  hands  of  accumulated  wealth.  To 
some  such  consummation,  however,  things 
seem  now  to  be  tending  as  they  tended  to 
territorial  lordship  at  the  opening  of  the  feudal 
era. 

Much  of  this  wealth  has  unquestionably 
been  made  by  undertakings  beneficial  to  the 
community.  Some  has  been  made  in  ways 
not  so  beneficial.  But  the  best  of  millionnaires 
has  heirs,  whose  characters,  cradled  in  idle 
ness  and  luxury,  would  be  ill  trusted  with 
power  over  the  State.  The  feudal  Lord  had 
duties,  social,  political,  and  military,  so  on- 


12  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

erous  that  in  the  opinion  of  an  eminent  his 
torian  their  mere  burden  shortened  life.  The 
modern  British  land-owner  has  local  duties 
which,  if  not  so  onerous  as  those  of  the  feudal 
Lord,  still  help  to  save  him  from  becom 
ing  a  mere  sybarite.  The  heir  of  a  financial 
millionnaire  has  no  such  salt  of  necessary  duty 
to  save  his  character  from  corruption. 

It  is  vain  to  rail  at  a  class  for  following  its 
natural  bent.  The  plutocratic  class,  after  all,  is 
doing  no  more.  But  its  natural  bent  is  anti 
democratic.  Its  ostentatious  prodigality  and 
luxury  are  a  defiance  of  democratic  sentiment 
and  subversive  of  democratic  manners.  At 
heart  it  sighs  for  a  court  and  aristocracy.  It 
worships  anything  royal  or  aristocratic.  It 
barters  the  hands  of  its  daughters  and  its 
millions  for  European  titles.  It  imitates,  and 
even  outvies  in  some  things,  the  gilding  of 
European  nobility.  Its  social  centre  is  gradu 
ally  shifting  from  America,  where  its  inclina 
tions  are  still  in  some  measure  controlled,  to 
England,  where  it  can  get  more  homage 
and  subserviency  for  its  wealth,  take  hold  on 
the  mantle  of  high  society,  hope  perhaps  in 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  13 

the  end  to  win  its  way  to  the  circle  of  Royalty, 
and   even,  if  it  becomes   naturalized,  itself  to 

wear  a  coronet  or  a  star. 

i 

tried  to  transplant  aristocracy  to  Canada. 
Failed,  as  Fox  told  him  he  would  ;  the  plant 
would  not  take  root  in  the  soil  of  the  New 
World.  Yet  a  way  of  introducing  aristocracy 
into  the  New  World  without  actual  transplan 
tation  has  been  found.  British  Peerages, 
Baronetcies,  Knighthoods,  and  minor  badges 
of  rank,  besides  showers  of  military  decorations, 
are  conferred  on  Colonists.  Americans  natu 
ralized  by  a  residence  of  two  years  in  Canada 
become  eligible  to  these  distinctions.  More 
than  one  of  them  has  been  knighted.  Nor 
does  the  little  Court  of  Ottawa  fail  to  attract 
American  courtiers  to  its  shrine.  The  Cana 
dian  Calendar  comprehends  a  list  of  titled 
Canadians  which  forms  a  miniature  Peerage. 
The  craving  for  aristocracy  goes  so  high 
that  the  furniture  of  a  house  in  an  American 
city,  because  a  duke  has  lived  in  it,  fetches 
extraordinary  prices,  while  there  is  special 
eagerness  to  buy  a  chair  in  which  His  Grace 
can  be  proved  to  have  sat.  There  is  an  Amer- 


14  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

ican  "  Burke  "  containing,  we  are  told,  upwards 
of  seven  hundred  coats  of  arms  of  American 
families,  with  their  lions  rampant,  helmets,  men 
in  armour,  and  feudal  mottoes.  On  the  other 
hand  British  aristocracy  opens  its  arms  to  the 
new  aspirant,  particularly  when  its  acres  are 
mortgaged.  The  American  who  offered  a 
large  fee  to  any  English  lady  of  title  who 
would  push  his  daughter  in  high  society,  might 
have  saved  his  money.  His  bank  account 
would  have  sufficed. 

The  political  colours  of  American  pluto 
cracy  were  plainly  shown  on  the  occasion  of 
the  South  African  war.  The  drawing  rooms 
of  New  York  at  once  declared  themselves  on 
the  side  of  the  drawing  rooms  of  London,  and 
a  concert,  given  practically  in  aid  of  the  war, 
was  attended,  we  were  told,  by  the  whole  world 
of  New  York  fashion. 

Of  the  furtive  extinction  of  popular  govern 
ment  without  change  of  constitutional  forms 
by  the  action  of  wealth,  we  have  at  least  one 
historic  example.  It  was  thus  that  Florence 
was  converted  from  a  Republic  into  a  Princi 
pality  under  the  absolute  government  of  the 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  15 

Medici.  The  head  of  the  house  of  Medici 
accumulated  an  enormous  fortune ;  won  popu 
larity  by  the  crafty  munificence  with  which 
he  expended  a  part  of  it;  bought  up  all  the 
springs  of  government ;  and  was  thus  enabled 
to  bequeath  a  virtual  despotism  to  his  son. 
His  usurpation,  it  is  right  to  say,  was  aided  by 
the  unwise  and  unrighteous  ambition  of  his 
countrymen,  who,  by  trampling  on  the  liberty 
of  Pisa  and  other  sister  communities,  had  im 
paired  the  spirit  of  liberty  in  themselves,  as 
well  as  by  the  factious  turbulence  of  Florentine 
democracy  which  made  quiet  citizens  long  for 
repose.  The  example  and  the  warning  of 
Florence  are  on  a  very  small  scale ;  so  was  the 
fortune  of  Cosmo  de'  Medici  compared  with 
those  the  influence  of  which  is  now  growing 
in  the  American  Republic. 

We  can  see  how  wealth  might,  in  a  mer 
cenary  age,  without  any  formal  change  of 
the  American  constitution,  practically  pos 
sess  itself  of  supreme  power.  The  process 
may  almost  be  said  to  have  already  begun. 
Power  is  evidently  settling  in  the  Senate, 
which  is  more  permanent  than  the  popular 


1 6  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

House,  less  unwieldy,  and  better  organized; 
the  House,  owing  to  its  unmanageable  num 
ber,  the  shortness  of  the  tenure,  the  conse 
quent  inexperience  of  members,  and  the  lack 
of  efficient  organization,  being  comparatively 
unable  to  bring  its  force  to  bear.  It  is 
manifest  that  elections  to  Senatorships  can  be 
controlled  by  wealth.  By  the  equality  of  the 
small  to  the  large  States  in  representation, 
an  oligarchical  character  is  given  to  the  body. 
The  mode  of  election,  not  by  popular  vote, 
but  by  a  conclave,  facilitates  personal  corrup 
tion.  The  people  may  desire  to  change  the 
mode,  but  the  Senate  has  practically  power 
to  withhold  the  question  from  their  vote, 
while  the  equal  representation  of  the  small 
States,  which  would  naturally  be  the  most 
venal,  is  placed  beyond  the  power  of  amend 
ment.  The  President  may  be  and  indeed 
has  been  brought  greatly  under  the  sway 
of  the  Senate.  If  to  anyone  such  a  forecast 
seems  visionary,  let  him  ask  himself  whether  a 
few  years  ago  he  could  have  dreamed  that  the 
principles  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence 
would  be  discarded  and  almost  derided ;  that 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  17 

dominion  over  other  races  would  be  forcibly 
assumed ;  and  that  American  citizens  would 
be  heard  passionately  calling  upon  their  Gov 
ernment  to  shoot  down  as  rebels  people 
struggling  for  their  independence  against  a 
foreign  yoke. 

Millionnairism  was  for  some  time  disunited 
and  timid,  shrinking  from  any  visible  exer 
cise  of  its  influence  and  even  from  bringing 
itself  under  the  public  eye.  It  is  now  becom 
ing  at  once  bolder  and  more  united.  It  is 
learning  to  turn  its  wealth  into  power.  In 
the  late  contest  its  union  seems  to  have  been 
almost  complete.  Even  a  Silver  King  obeyed, 
against  the  bias  of  individual  interest,  the 
stronger  bias  of  his  class. 

The  violence  of  the  rupture  between  the 
American  Colonies  of  Great  Britain  and  their 
Mother  Country  was  in  itself  infinitely  to  be 
deplored ;  but  it  had  a  redeeming  feature ;  it 
preserved  American  originality,  which,  had  the 
filial  connection  continued,  might  have  been 
gradually  lost.  The  American  Colonies,  after 
all,  were  shoots  thrown  off  from  a  full-grown 
civilization.  The  general  indication  of  history 


18  COMMONWEALTH    OR   EMPIRE 

is  that  greatness  comes,  not  from  such  offsets, 
but  from  the  wild  stock  which  has  the  germ 
of  independent  life  in  itself.  The  Greater 
Greece  was  much  the  lesser  in  everything 
but  bulk.  So  far  as  we  can  see,  Carthage, 
though  an  enlarged,  was  an  inferior  Tyre. 
Little,  except  of  a  material  kind,  has  hitherto 
come  of  colonies  in  later  days  owing  their 
birth  to  adult  civilization,  such  as  those  of 
Spain,  Portugal,  Holland,  or  France.  The 
American  Colonies  of  Great  Britain  were 
founded,  not  merely  by  emigration,  but  by 
secession,  religious,  political,  or  social,  and 
were  ultimately  torn  away  from  the  Mother 
Country  by  a  political  convulsion.  These 
things  together  seemed  to  give  them  a  life 
of  their  own.  A  marked  and  even  bitter 
antagonism  was  for  some  time  the  result. 
This,  so  far  as  the  American  Plutocracy  is 
concerned,  is  now  giving  way  to  the  force  of 
social  attraction.  That  the  ancient  antago 
nism  should  cease,  that  all  its  traces  should 
be  effaced,  and  its  bitterness  be  replaced  by 
perfect  amity,  is  what  right-minded  men  on 
both  sides  desire  and  do  their  best  to  bring 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  19 

about.  But  it  is  not  desirable,  either  for 
America  or  for  humanity,  that  American  civili 
zation  should  be  reabsorbed  into  that  of  the 
Old  Country  or  that  the  original  and  inde 
pendent  life  of  America  should  be  lost. 


The  rapid  growth  of  plutocratic  influence 
is  peculiar,  in  intensity  at  least,  to  the  United 
States.  But  America  is  also  struck  by  the 
sudden  gust  of  Militarism  and  Imperialism 
which  threatens  to  reverse  the  progress  made 
by  reason,  economical  government,  and  inter 
national  morality  during  the  last  half  century ; 
to  give  the  world  up  again  to  the  demon  of 
war;  to  arm  every  nation  against  the  rest; 
to  take  the  bread  from  the  mouth  of  labour 
and  spend  it  in  the  apparatus  of  destruction. 
There  seems  to  have  come  over  us  a  sort  of 
satiety  of  civilization,  a  hankering  for  a  return 
to  robust  barbarism  with  its  reign  of  force  and 
disregard  of  moral  ties.  Churches,  most  of 
them,  are  carried  away  by  the  prevailing  im 
pulse,  and  lend  the  sanction  of  the  Gospel  to 
the  love  of  war.  The  change  of  sentiment 


20  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

extends  even  to  sports.  Prize-fighting  comes 
again  into  vogue;  and  a  prize-fight  has  been 
attended  by  women.  Of  each  of  the  principal 
European  nations  a  vast  proportion  is  in  arms, 
withdrawn  from  productive  industry,  the  fruits 
of  which  it  consumes ;  though  between  the 
people  of  one  nation  and  the  people  of  another 
there  is  no  assignable  cause  of  quarrel.  Those 
who  hold  the  theory  of  tides  in  human  history, 
may  point  to  this  as  a  tidal  wave.  But  the 
chief  cause  of  the  cataclysm  probably  is  the 
weakening  by  scepticism  of  our  allegiance  to 
religious  principles  of  humanity  and  fraternity 
which  hitherto  have  not  only  been  formally 
held  sacred,  but  retained  a  certain  amount 
of  real  force.  In  the  age  of  Machiavel  an 
eclipse  of  religious  faith  was  attended  by  a 
loosening  of  morality.  The  present  eclipse 
of  religious  faith  seems  to  be  producing  a 
similar  effect.  A  writer,  defending  the  an 
nexation  of  Cuba  in  defiance  of  pledges,  says 
that  "  if  morality  is  outraged,  it  must  look  for 
compensation  elsewhere."  He  gives  frank 
expression  to  a  growing  sentiment. 

We  all  know  that  war   is,  and  till    human 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  21 

nature  shall  have  been  greatly  changed,  will 
be  necessary  for  self-defence  or  for  the  police 
of  nations.  We  all  know  that  the  profession 
of  arms  is  consequently  indispensable.  We  all 
know  that  the  character  of  the  soldier  has  its 
special  virtues,  with  which  society  could  hardly 
afford  to  part;  though  the  soldier's  unreason 
ing  submission  to  discipline  is  a  different  thing 
from  a  freeman's  reasonable  submission  to  law ; 
while  the  idea  that  the  discipline  of  the  camp 
is  the  only  discipline  is  belied  by  the  service  of 
our  railways,  our  mercantile  marine,  and  all  our 
great  industrial  establishments.  But  now  come 
teachers,  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  among  the 
number,  who  tell  us  that  war  is  not  only  an 
occasional  necessity,  but  a  good  thing  in  itself, 
and  a  moral  tonic  "saving  nations  from  the 
eating  canker  of  those  vices  which  too  often 
grow  up  in  a  long  continuance  of  peace."  The 
words  are  those  of  an  eminent  English  ecclesi 
astic  who  does  not  shrink  from  quoting  such 
lines  as,  — 

"  That  God's  most  perfect  instrument, 
In  working  out  a  pure  intent, 
Is  man  arrayed  for  mutual  slaughter 
Yea,  Carnage  is  His  daughter." 


22  COMMONWEALTH    OR   EMPIRE 

"  War,"  says  the  same  writer  in  a  high-strung 
passage,  "  is  but  the  collective  form  of  the  age 
long,  unceasing  conflict  of  the  human  race 
against  the  usurpations  of  tyrannous  evil.  It 
is  a  fraction  of  that  Armageddon  struggle, 
described  in  the  Apocalypse,  in  which  the  Son 
of  God  rides  forth  at  the  head  of  all  His  saints 
to  subdue  the  machinations  of  the  devil  and 
his  angels."  Such  language  held  in  such  a 
quarter  surely  warns  us  of  the  existence  of  an 
extraordinary  excitement  against  which  we  shall 
do  well  to  be  on  our  guard. 

"  There  are  whole  books  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment,"  we  are  told,  "  which  ring  with  the  clash 
of  conflict."  There  are  books  of  the  Old 
Testament  which  ring  with  the  shrieks  of  the 
people  of  Canaanitish  cities  butchered  without 
regard  for  age  or  sex  by  an  invading  tribe,  or 
with  the  groans  of  the  inhabitants  of  captured 
towns  tortured  by  the  conqueror  in  brick  kilns 
or  under  harrows  of  iron.  There  are  also  pass 
ages  of  tribal  or  priestly  ferocity,  such  as  the 
murder  of  Sisera  or  the  slaying  of  Agag.  But 
the  ideal  Hebrew  polity  is  not  militarist.  It  is 
much  the  reverse.  The  Jew  is  bidden,  trusting 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  23 

in  God,  to  do  his  duty  in  battle  for  his  country, 
which  was  threatened  on  all  sides  by  aggressive 
powers ;  but  there  is  to  be  no  standing  army, 
only  the  national  militia  called  out  by  the 
officers  of  the  tribes,  with  captains  appointed 
for  the  occasion.  Nor  is  service  compulsory ; 
the  man  who  has  built  a  new  house  and  not 
dedicated  it,  the  man  who  has  planted  a  vine 
yard  and  has  not  eaten  of  it,  the  man  who 
has  betrothed  a  wife  and  not  taken  her,  are 
discharged ;  so  is  any  man  who  will  plead  that 
he  is  fearful  and  faint-hearted  (Deut.  xx.  1-9). 
There  is  no  special  exaltation,  as  at  Rome, 
of  prowess  in  war;  no  heaven  like  that  of 
the  Koran  for  those  who  die  fighting  for  the 
true  God.  National  defence  is  a  duty ;  but  the 
blessing,  even  of  the  Old  Testament,  is  Peace. 

We  are  told  that  in  the  New  Testament 
Christ  and  John  the  Baptist  recognize  war 
and  the  soldier's  trade.  No  doubt  they  do. 
Their  object  was  to  change,  not  institutions, 
but  the  heart.  If  they  had  succeeded  in 
changing  the  heart  of  all  mankind,  there 
would  have  been  an  end  of  the  soldier's  trade. 

Again  a  learned  professor  writes:  — 


24  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

"  War,  therefore  I  would  define  as  a  phase 
in  the  life-effort  of  the  State  towards  com- 
pleter  self-realization,  a  phase  of  the  eternal 
nisus,  the  perpetual  omnipresent  strife  of  all 
being  towards  self-fulfilment.  Destruction  is 
not  its  aim,  but  the  intensification  of  the  life, 
whether  of  the  conquering  or  of  the  con 
quered  State.  War  is  thus  a  manifestation 
of  the  world-spirit  in  the  form  the  most 
sublime  and  awful  that  can  enthrall  the  con 
templation  of  man.  It  is  an  action  radiating 
from  the  same  source  as  the  heroisms,  the 
essential  agonies,  conflicts,  of  all  life." 

You  declare  war  upon  people,  you  invade 
their  country,  kill  thousands  of  them,  deport 
the  survivors,  sack  and  burn  their  home 
steads,  deprive  them  of  their  independence  and 
of  their  existence  as  a  nation,  set  your  foot 
upon  their  necks  in  the  insolence  of  conquest ; 
all  this  for  the  purpose  of  intensifying  their 
national  life  as  well  as  your  own !  Again,  it 
must  be  said  that  a  spirit  strange  and  almost 
delirious  is  abroad. 

There  is  a  disposition  on  the  part  of  some  of 
these  closet  warriors  to  treat  with  levity  those 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  25 

who  think  that  there  is  enough  of  misery,  pain, 
and  bereavement  in  the  world  without  adding 
the  horrors  of  war.  If  they  had  only  seen 
the  contents  of  a  field  hospital  after  a  battle ! 
However,  in  those  who  fight,  the  battle  calls 
forth  heroic  qualities.  What  sort  of  qualities 
does  it  call  forth  in  those  who  do  not  fight,  but 
stay  at  home  gloating  over  telegraphic  reports 
of  carnage,  or  making  night  hideous  with  the 
orgies  of  victory? 

Tennyson,  in  a  well-known  passage  of 
"  Maud,"  inspired  by  that  Crimean  war  which 
has  now  not  a  single  defender,  gives  raptur 
ous  expression  to  his  belief  that  the  mean 
vices  which  peace  has  bred  will  be  banished 
by  the  ennobling  influence  of  war.  Is  there 
the  slightest  reason  for  believing  that  in 
that  case  or  in  any  case  war,  as  war,  ever 
did  banish  the  mean  vices?  A  struggle  for 
a  noble  cause  no  doubt  ennobles  a  nation. 
But  then  it  is  the  cause  that  does  it,  not  the 
mere  war.  So,  a  just  war  may  unite  a  nation; 
though  the  war  of  1812,  which  American 
historians  say  completed  the  union  of  the 
American  confederation,  was  attended  by  a 


26  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

violent  party  struggle,  and  gave  birth  to  the 
Hartford  Convention.  Besides,  we  have  no 
right  to  heal  our  own  dissensions  by  breaking 
our  neighbour's  head. 

That  a  nation,  if  it  is  not  in  a  constant  state 
of  preparation  for  war,  and  of  appeal  to  the 
martial  sentiment,  must  become  enervated  and 
lose  its  warlike  qualities,  can  hardly  be  main 
tained  after  the  War  of  Secession,  in  which  an 
industrial  nation,  after  a  long  peace,  displayed 
an  aptitude  for  war  unsurpassed  in  history. 

It  is  needless  to  say  what  is  the  relation  of 
Militarism  to  political  liberty.  It  has  been  the 
same  ever  since  the  military  power  enslaved 
Rome.  England  owed  the  preservation  of  her 
liberties  to  her  immunity,  as  an  island  realm, 
from  standing  armies.  She  had  nearly  lost 
them  when  the  mercenaries  of  James  II.  were 
encamped  at  Hounslow.  They  would,  in  fact, 
have  been  lost  if  William  and  his  Dutchmen 
had  not  come  to  their  rescue,  perhaps  even 
had  Marlborough  adhered  to  the  King.  The 
French  Republic  the  other  day  narrowly  es 
caped  being  for  the  third  time  subverted  by 
its  army.  Had  either  Boulanger  or  Zurlinden 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  27 

been  politically  daring,  the  Republic  would 
probably  have  fallen.  The  American  army 
of  the  War  of  Secession  was  not  a  standing 
army,  but  a  nation  in  arms  for  self-preserva 
tion.  The  war  over,  it  returned  to  industry. 
Yet  it  has  given  birth  to  a  great  military  inter 
est,  and  to  a  Pension  List  against  which,  though 
it  exceeds  the  cost  of  the  great  standing  armies 
of  Europe,  neither  political  party  has  entered 
a  protest. 

Since  the  time  of  James  II.  there  has  been 
in  England  no  serious  conflict  between  the 
Government  and  the  people.  Yet  in  the 
period  between  the  end  of  the  French  war  and 
the  passing  of  the  Reform  Bill,  Government,  in 
its  resistance  to  reform,  may  be  said  to  have 
rested  on  military  force,  and  had  not  the  Duke 
of  Wellington  been,  as  he  was,  thoroughly  con 
stitutional,  military  force  might  have  been 
more  openly  displayed.  Fear  of  this  caused 
an  outbreak  of  popular  feeling  against  the 
Duke,  of  which  the  iron  shutters  of  Apsley 
House  long  remained  the  monument. 

Clay  made  the  war  of  1812,  and  wished  the 
fact  inscribed  on  his  tomb.  But  he  lived  to 


28  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

deplore  its  consequence,  the  dictatorship  of 
Jackson,  and  to  modify  his  bellicose  tone.  He 
voted  against  a  pension  for  the  mother  of 
Perry,  the  hero  of  Lake  Erie,  on  the  double 
ground  that  the  pension  system  must  be  re 
stricted,  and  that  military  distinction  must  not 
be  made  supreme.  "  As  a  friend  to  liberty  and 
to  the  permanence  of  our  institutions,"  he  wrote 
to  Francis  Brooke,  "  I  cannot  consent  in  this 
early  stage  of  their  existence,  by  contributing 
to  the  election  of  a  military  chieftain,  to  give 
the  strongest  guaranty  that  the  Republic 
would  march  in  the  fatal  road  which  has  con 
ducted  every  other  Republic  to  ruin." 

Prussia  had  to  put  on  her  helmet  for  the 
purpose  of  uniting  Germany  and  protecting 
the  union  against  France.  But  what  have 
been  the  consequences  of  her  prolonged  Mili 
tarism?  Some  Germans  at  all  events  com 
plain  that  it  rests  like  a  curse  upon  her;  that 
it  deprives  her  people  practically  of  a  free  con 
stitution  and  extended  suffrage ;  that  it  en 
slaves  the  Legislature,  gags  opinion,  and  fills 
the  gaols  with  political  offenders.  If  there  is 
any  measure  of  truth  in  these  complaints,  we 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  29 

see  once  more  how  institutions  formally  free 
may  be  practically  nullified  by  a  predominat 
ing  influence. 

Military  parade  and  glitter  are  in  themselves 
a  seductive  counter-charm  to  political  aspira 
tion.  British  Toryism  perceives  this  and  acts 
on  the  perception.  It  is  noted  by  American 
historians  that  there  was  nothing  military  in 
the  demonstrations  and  processions  which  cele 
brated  the  acceptance  of  the  Constitution  and 
the  birth  of  the  American  nation.  But  the 
parade  of  Queen  Victoria's  Jubilee  was  highly 
military,  even  the  House  of  Commons  having 
no  place  in  it.  A  grand  feature  of  it  was  the 
display  of  a  magnificent  war  fleet.  Its  aspect 
was  not  so  much  that  of  the  harvest-home  of 
a  reign  of  peaceful  prosperity,  as  that  of  a 
show  of  war  power.  The  nations  responded 
by  a  general  increase  of  war  navies.  With  this 
passion  for  military  show  has  gone  a  marked 
tendency  to  political  reaction. 

Military  distinction  seems  always,  for  some 
reason  which  is  difficult  to  divine,  to  have  had 
a  singular  fascination  for  the  American  people. 
The  British  nation  once  put  a  famous  soldier 


30  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

at  its  head,  but  Wellington  was  not  a  mere 
soldier ;  he  was  a  great  European  statesman,  an 
oracle  of  conservative  Europe.  America  has 
had  five  soldier  Presidents  besides  other  elec 
tions  or  nominations  partly  on  military  grounds. 
General  Jackson  on  his  prancing  charger  before 
the  White  House  symbolizes  the  tendency. 

In  a  navy  there  is  no  political  danger.  Not 
a  word  can  be  said  against  the  creation  of  a 
navy  strong  enough  to  protect  the  widespread 
commerce  of  the  United  States,  to  guard  Ameri 
can  coasts  from  insult  and  forever  put  an  end 
to  all  threats  of  bombarding  New  York.  Nor 
can  a  word  be  said  against  the  provision  of 
such  coaling  stations  as  the  navy  may  require. 

Man,  it  seems,  after  all,  must  have  a  religion. 
Belief  in  Christianity  and  even  in  a  God  grow 
ing  faint,  he  is  taking  to  worshipping  the  Flag. 
Strict  laws  are  to  be  made  against  the  profana 
tion  of  the  sacred  emblem  by  any  common  use. 
More  than  that,  its  unfurling,  no  matter  in 
what  quarrel,  is  to  be  held  to  constitute  moral 
ity,  so  as  to  bind  and  at  the  same  time  to 
absolve  the  conscience  of  the  citizen.  Be  the 
cause  good  or  bad,  the  flag  must  be  carried 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  31 

on  to  victory,  and  everything  done  with  that 
purpose  is  to  be  deemed  right.  With  this  wor 
ship  of  the  flag  goes  the  maxim,  "  My  country, 
right  or  wrong,"  —  Decatur's  doctrine  which 
was  revived  for  President  Folk's  Mexican  war. 
Of  the  superstition,  which  is  the  offspring  of 
primitive  ignorance  or  of  blind  tradition,  we 
have  had  examples  enough;  this  seems  to  be 
the  first  superstition  consciously  imposed  on 
ourselves.  Attachment  to  the  flag  as  the  sym 
bol  of  the  nation  is  right  and  natural ;  but 
the  present  transport  of  adoration  leaves  that 
sentiment  far  behind. 

Nobody  has  conspired.  Nobody  need  be 
suspected  of  any  evil  intentions.  There  is  no 
design,  perhaps  not  even  a  desire.  But  there 
is  a  tendency,  against  which  loyal  liegemen  of 
the  commonwealth  may  do  well  to  guard. 


"  There  is  nothing,"  says  the  historian  of 
the  Decline  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire, 
"more  adverse  to  nature  and  reason  than  to 
hold  in  obedience  remote  countries  and  foreign 
nations,  in  opposition  to  their  inclination  and 


32  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

interest.  A  torrent  of  Barbarians  may  pass 
over  the  earth,  but  an  extensive  empire  must 
be  supported  by  a  refined  system  of  policy  and 
oppression;  in  the  centre,  an  absolute  power, 
prompt  in  action  and  rich  in  resources ;  a  swift 
and  easy  communication  with  the  extreme 
parts ;  fortifications  to  check  the  first  effort  of 
rebellion ;  a  regular  administration  to  protect 
and  punish;  and  a  well-disciplined  army  to 
inspire  fear,  without  provoking  discontent  and 
despair." 

Empire  is  the  result  of  conquest,  and  con 
quest  is  the  appetite  of  the  savage  man,  who 
preys  upon  his  fellows  as  the  tiger  preys  upon 
the  herd.  In  the  case  of  the  utter  barbarian, 
the  Assyrian,  the  Mogul,  the  Tartar,  or  the 
Turk,  it  is  mere  rapine  and  does  nothing  but 
destroy.  In  the  case  of  the  Saracen  or  the 
Spanish  adventurer,  it  is  less  merely  destructive 
and  may  partly  compensate  for  its  havoc  by 
deposits  of  value,  though  the  ruin  of  Mexican 
and  Aztec  civilization  by  Spanish  conquerors 
is  to  be  deplored.  The  Macedonian  sowed 
the  seeds  of  Greek  culture,  albeit  of  a  culture 
far  inferior  to  that  of  Athens.  The  Romans 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  33 

extended  the  dominion  of  Latin  law  and  gov 
ernment.  Not  that  either  Alexander  or  the 
Roman  conqueror  had  any  definite  idea  of  a 
civilizing  mission,  or  of  anything  but  his  own 
aggrandizement.  The  savage  appetite  reap 
peared  in  the  Corsican  Napoleon,  who  burned 
with  a  lust,  not  of  conquest  only,  but  of  war. 
As  civilization  advances,  the  primitive  passion 
loses  its  force.  Even  in  military  statesmen 
of  the  better  class,  such  as  Washington  and 
Wellington,  it  ceases  to  exist.  Policy  conspires 
with  humanity  in  its  extinction,  mere  extension 
of  territory  being  seen  to  bring  not  increase  of 
strength  but  of  weakness. 

If  you  have  Empire,  you  will,  in  one  form  or 
another,  as  Gibbon  says,  have  absolute  power. 
So  it  has  been,  from  days  of  the  Assyrian 
Empire  down  to  the  days  of  the  Empire  of 
Napoleon.  So  it  will  always  be.  In  gaining 
a  vast  Empire  abroad,  Spain  forfeited  liberty 
at  home.  Already  the  President  of  the  United 
States  has,  over  the  subject  Filipinos,  powers 
from  the  assumption  of  which  Washington 
would  have  recoiled,  and  which  would  have 
filled  Jefferson  with  dismay. 


34  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

The  adoption  of  Imperialism  by  Americans 
can  hardly  fail  to  carry  with  it  a  fundamental 
change  in  the  moral  foundations  of  their  own 
Commonwealth.  Other  polities,  such  as  that 
of  England,  may  be  based  on  constitutional 
tradition.  That  of  the  United  States  is  based 
on  established  and  almost  consecrated  princi 
ples.  The  Declaration  of  Independence,  it 
is  true,  was  a  creation  of  the  eighteenth  cen 
tury;  its  abstract  doctrine  of  human  equality 
belongs  to  the  political  philosophy  of  that 
era.  But  it  has  living  force  when  it  says,  as 
in  effect  it  does,  that  man  shall  not  exercise 
lordship  over  man.  When  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  after  recognizing  the  Filipinos 
as  their  allies,  bought  them  with  their  land  of 
Spain,  as  they  would  buy  the  contents  of  a 
cattle-ranch  or  a  sheep-fold,  and  proceeded 
to  shoot  them  down  for  refusing  to  be  deliv 
ered  to  the  purchaser,  they  surely  broke  away 
from  the  principles  on  which  their  own  polity 
is  built,  and  compromised  the  national  charac 
ter  formed  on  respect  for  those  principles. 

It  is  instructive  to  mark  the  political  effect 
that  Imperialism,  with  its  inevitable  consort, 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  35 

Militarism,  has  already  begun  to  produce  in 
Great  Britain.  The  party  of  Liberalism  and 
Progress  lies  prostrate.  That  of  Aristocracy 
or  Plutocracy  and  reaction  triumphs.  Tories 
even  begin  to  hope  for  fulfilment  of  the  vision 
of  Bolingbroke,  afterwards  reproduced  by  Dis 
raeli  ;  personal  government  in  the  shape  of 
a  patriot  king,  supported  by  monarchical 
masses  against  the  democratic  intelligence 
of  the  middle  class,  as  the  Bourbon  despotism 
at  Naples  was  supported  by  the  multitude. 
There  has  unquestionably  been,  since  the  out 
break  of  Jingoism,  an  inflation  of  monarchical 
sentiment,  and  a  perceptible  disposition  to 
revive  the  personal  power  of  the  Crown.  Con 
stitutional  Conservatism,  such  as  was  that  of 
Canning  and  Peel,  is  at  a  discount,  and  the 
political  work  of  the  last  century  seems  in 
danger  of  being  partly  undone.  The  personal 
worship  of  Royalty  and  the  parade  of  Royal 
state  are  being  carried  to  a  height  unprece 
dented  of  late  years.  It  is  proposed  to  change 
the  wording  of  the  National  Anthem,  and  for 
"  our  gracious  King "  to  replace  "  our  lord, 
the  King."  Imperial  designations  are  creep- 


36  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

ing  into  the  place  of  those  of  constitutional 
Monarchy.  There  is  perhaps  a  still  more 
ominous  sign  of  reaction.  A  Minister  of  the 
Crown,  called  to  account  for  having  had  British 
citizens  tried  for  treason  by  court  martial,  in  a 
Colony  where  the  courts  were  open,  feels  him 
self  safe  in  answering  with  bravado. 

The  American  Commonwealth  had  the  larg 
est  population  of  freemen  in  the  world,  and 
one  which  was  rapidly  growing.  Its  heritage 
reached  from  Arctic  regions  to  regions  almost 
tropical,  with  a  range  of  production  embracing 
nearly  everything  needed  or  desired  by  man. 
The  world  was  full  of  its  inventions  and  its 
manufactures.  It  was  the  tutelary  power  of 
this  continent.  It  was  in  the  van  of  political 
progress.  Its  influence  was  felt  more  or  less 
in  the  politics  of  all  nations.  If  such  a  state 
was  isolation,  it  was  an  isolation  the  influence 
of  which  was  as  wide  as  humanity. 

But  a  tempter  crept  to  the  ear  of  the  Com 
monwealth  and  whispered  that  all  this  was 
narrow  and  mean.  The  time,  the  tempter 
said,  had  come  for  an  ampler  life,  for  ceasing 
to  listen  to  the  saws  of  Washington's  senile 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  37 

prudence,  for  doffing  the  trader,  and  claiming 
a  seat  in  the  grand  council  of  aristocratic 
and  military  nations.  An  appeal  was  made 
to  something  like  the  craving  of  the  Ameri 
can  girl  for  entrance  into  high  European 
society,  not  without  risk  of  the  mortification 
with  which  the  newcomer  into  a  patrician 
circle  is  apt  to  meet. 

At  the  same  time,  the  world  in  general  was 
being  filled  with  the  spirit  of  Jingoism,  that 
curious  reaction  against  peaceful  and  industrial 
civilization,  as  well  as  against  international 
morality,  already  noted,  which  may  perhaps  be 
said  to  have  partly  had  its  source  in  a  philoso 
phy  of  materialism;  Darwin's  doctrine  of  the 
Survival  of  the  Fittest  being  misconstrued,  as 
if  the  strongest  were  the  fittest,  which,  though 
true  in  the  case  of  brutes,  is  untrue  in  the  case 
of  the  moral  and  intellectual  being,  Man. 

Commercial  greed,  however,  has  been  a 
powerful  factor.  Over-production,  which  seems 
to  prevail  in  the  manufacturing  countries, 
begets  a  general  craving  for  new  markets. 
The  objects  of  the  predatory  attack  on  China 
were  "  spheres  of  influence,"  the  command,  that 


38  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

is,  of  sections  of  country  in  which  the  preda 
tory  power  might  force  the  Chinese  to  buy  its 
goods.  For  this,  under  the  mask  of  punishing 
Chinese  outrage,  massacre  and  havoc  were  let 
loose  upon  that  hapless  land.  Americans  may 
well  congratulate  themselves  on  having  been 
kept  as  a  nation  clear  of  these  doings  by  a 
Government  not  yet  thoroughly  initiated  in 
Imperialism,  or  emancipated  from  the  ties  of 
humanity.  The  South  African  war,  again,  was 
brought  about  largely  by  the  desire  of  a  com 
mercial  interest  for  more  complete  possession 
of  the  mines,  though  with  that  influence  was 
blended  national  desire  of  Empire  and  of 
revenge  for  Majuba  Hill.  "  The  British  flag," 
says  Mr.  Cecil  Rhodes,  "  is  the  greatest  of 
assets." 

Capital  is  attracted  by  the  prospect  of  ex 
ploiting  new  and  rich  fields  of  enterprise  with 
servile  labour,  and  this  tendency  to  employ 
servile  labour  is  a  fact  of  which  free  labour, 
which  would  be  in  danger  of  suffering  by  the 
competition,  would  do  well  to  take  note. 

Will  commerce  find  in  the  end  that  it  has 
best  promoted  its  own  interests  by  filling  the 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  39 

world  with  havoc  ?  Will  the  Chinese  market, 
for  instance,  be  improved  by  a  carnival  of 
slaughter  and  destruction,  with  inevitable  fam 
ine  in  its  train  ?  Will  not  the  price  of  con 
quest  in  itself  be  a  formidable  offset  to  the 
profit?  Last  year's  profit  of  trade  with  the 
Philippines  is  miserably  small  as  compared 
with  the  expenditure  on  the  conquest.  It  is 
true,  the  expenditure  falls  on  the  public,  the 
gain  accrues  to  the  trader,  who  is  active  in 
support  of  a  policy  which  serves  his  interest, 
while  the  public  yawns  over  the  dry  details 
of  national  finance.  As  Adam  Smith  says: 
"  To  found  a  great  Empire  for  the  sole  pur 
pose  of  raising  up  a  people  of  customers,  may, 
at  first  sight,  appear  a  project  fit  only  for  a 
nation  of  shopkeepers.  It  is,  however,  a  project 
altogether  unfit  for  a  nation  of  shopkeepers, 
but  extremely  fit  for  a  nation  whose  govern 
ment  is  influenced  by  shopkeepers.  Such 
statesmen,  and  such  statesmen  only,  are  capable 
of  fancying  that  they  will  find  some  advantage 
in  employing  the  blood  and  treasure  of  their 
fellow-citizens  to  found  and  maintain  such  an 
empire." 


40  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

How,  in  what  circumstances,  and  under 
what  inspiration,  was  the  nation  launched  on 
this  new  career?  Was  the  voice  of  its  delib 
erate  reason  heard?  Were  wisdom  and  fore 
cast  at  the  helm  ?  An  attractive  personality 
and  a  tragic  death  have  encircled  with  a  halo 
the  head  of  President  McKinley.  But  those 
who  compare  him  to  Lincoln  are  surely  mis 
taken.  Lincoln  was  a  man  of  fixed  princi 
ples  and  a  settled  policy.  In  applying  his 
principles  and  giving  effect  to  his  policy,  he 
wisely  consulted  the  popular  sentiment,  with 
which  he  was,  above  all  men,  familiar.  But 
he  did  not  yield  to  pressure,  or  veer  with 
the  gale.  Though  open  to  counsel,  he  was 
an  independent,  almost  a  lonely,  thinker.  His 
religion  was  a  simple  belief  in  the  God  of 
righteousness,  simply  expressed.  Admirers  of 
President  McKinley  will  tell  you  that  he 
went  unwillingly  and  under  party  pressure 
into  the  Spanish  war.  That  eminent  mem 
ber  of  the  Republican  party,  the  late  J.  M. 
Forbes,  of  Massachusetts,  has  left  on  record 
his  conviction  that  the  war  was  made  to  keep 
a  party  in  power.  The  American  people, 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  41 

as  to  one  who  was  among  them  at  the 
time  it  appeared,  while  they  rightly  wished 
to  see  Cuba  free  and  Spanish  power  with 
drawn  from  this  hemisphere,  neither  desired 
nor  expected  war.  The  actual  cause  of  war, 
so  far  as  the  people  were  concerned,  it  will 
be  generally  admitted,  was  the  belief  that 
the  Maine  had  been  blown  up  by  the  Span 
ish  authorities.  An  unscrupulous  Opposition 
set  England  on  fire,  and  forced  Walpole  into 
a  war  with  Spain,  by  the  story  of  Jenkins's 
ear,  which  Jenkins  said  the  Spaniards  had 
cut  off,  but  the  incredulous  said  had  been 
cut  off  in  the  pillory.  Burke  tells  us  that  the 
authors  of  that  war,  which  broke  the  peace  of 
Europe,  coolly  washed  their  hands  of  it,  and 
spoke  of  it  with  total  unconcern.  Territorial 
annexation  having  been  disclaimed  by  the 
President,  must  have  been  accidental,  not 
deliberate.  The  annexation  of  the  Philippines 
was  evidently  the  accidental  result  of  Admiral 
Dewey's  naval  victory  at  Manila,  not  sanc 
tioned  by  the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  na 
tion.  When  it  had  taken  place,  an  appeal 
was  made  to  the  pride  of  the  people,  who 


42  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

were  called  upon  to  uphold  the  flag,  and 
keep  what  they  were  said  to  have  won. 

Timur  the  Tartar  and  Gengis  Khan  meant 
conquest  and  avowed  it.  They  meant  slaughter 
and  avowed  it,  raising  triumphal  pyramids  of 
heads.  They  had  no  philanthropic  pretentions. 
The  Imperialist  of  to-day,  when  he  attacks 
the  weak,  burns  their  homes,  takes  possession 
of  their  land,  and  if  they  "  rebel,"  sends  "  puni 
tive  expeditions  against  them,"  laps  himself 
in  the  delusion  that  he  is  the  elect  instru 
ment  of  destiny,  or  if  he  is  pious,  of  God. 
What  is  his  "  destiny  "  or  his  "  God  "  but  the 
shadow  of  his  own  rapacity  projected  on  the 
clouds?  What  had  destiny  or  God  or  any 
thing  but  human  greed  to  do  with  the  atroci 
ties  perpetrated  in  China? 

Does  the  white  man,  in  his  overflowing 
philanthropy,  want  a  burden  ?  He  has  it  at 
his  own  door.  If  he  is  a  member  of  the 
British  Parliament,  let  him  step  out  into 
Whitechapel  or  Houndsditch,  or  let  him  read 
"The  White  Slaves  of  England,"  and  see 
how  in  his  own  country  the  alkali-worker, 
the  nail-maker,  the  slipper-maker,  the  wool- 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  43 

comber,  the  white-lead  maker,  the  chain-maker 
live. 

In  the  United  States  the  white  man  has  a 
burden,  such  perhaps  as   no  other  nation  has 
been  called  upon  to  bear.     It  would  be  hard, 
at  least,  to  find  any  instance  of  a  problem  so 
arduous  as  that  of  the  two  races  in  the  South. 
Where  intermarriage  is  out  of   the  question, 
social   equality   cannot    exist;    without    social 
equality  political  equality  is  impossible,  and  a 
Republic    in   the    true   sense    can    hardly   be. 
When   hatred    of   race  has   mounted   to   such 
a   pitch  that   the  people  of  one  race  go   out 
by    thousands    to    see   a    man    of    the    other 
race  burnt  alive,  and  carry  away  his  charred 
bones   or   pieces   of    his   singed   garments   as 
souvenirs;    when   they   even    photograph   and 
phonograph    his    dying   agonies;   how   can   it 
be   hoped  that  the  two  races  will  ever  form 
one  commonwealth?     Can   it  even   be  hoped 
that   they    will    ever    dwell    side   by   side    in 
peace?      Even   the  hospitable  reception   of   a 
black   man    by   the    President    is    enough    to 
call   forth   a   storm    of    Southern    indignation, 
and    from    a    Senator   a   threat    of    massacre. 


44  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

All  ideas  of  the  negro's  dying  out,  all 
ideas  of  deporting  him  or  corralling  him  have 
manifestly  come  to  an  end.  Some  of  the 
firmest  among  English  friends  of  the  North 
at  the  time  of  the  Civil  War  could  not  help 
viewing  with  deep  misgiving  the  reincorpo- 
ration  of  the  Slave  States.  How  is  this  prob 
lem  to  be  solved?  How  is  it  to  be  solved 
by  a  Government  which  has  practically  no 
power  of  coercion,  which  cannot  afford  to 
estrange  Southern  votes?  President  McKin- 
ley,  while  he  was  preaching  the  love  of  law 
to  the  Filipinos  with  fire  and  sword,  stood 
in  the  midst  of  a  country  where  lawless 
lynching  was  going  on,  yet  could  not  ven 
ture  to  protest. 

To  the  black  population  of  the  Southern 
States  is  apparently  soon  to  be  added  the 
black  population  of  Cuba,  while  even  the 
white  population  of  Cuba  is  not  American 
or  truly  Republican  in  character.  Should 
expansion  pursue  that  course,  San  Domingo 
and  the  West  Indies,  with  their  black  mill 
ions  and  their  alien  civilization  or  barbarism, 
will  probably  be  annexed.  Grant  strove  hard 


COMMONWEALTH  OR  EMPIRE  45 

to  bring  about  the  annexation  of  San  Domingo. 
The  Isthmian  canal  will  act  as  a  lure  to 
expansion  on  the  continent  southward.  The 
slave-owner's  dream  of  an  Empire  extending 
south  may  thus  be  practically  fulfilled.  What, 
then,  will  become  of  the  American  Common 
wealth?  One  of  two  things  apparently  must 
ensue;  either  a  radical  change  in  the  char 
acter  of  the  nation  and  in  the  spirit,  if  not 
in  the  form  of  its  institutions,  or  a  second 
disruption.  Have  Expansionists  looked  ahead? 
Have  they  made  up  their  minds  what  direc 
tion  their  expansion  shall  take,  and  consid 
ered,  if  it  takes  a  southern  direction,  what  is 
likely  to  be  the  effect  ?  The  decision  cannot 
safely  be  left  to  traders^  who  are  apt  to  care 
little  for  national  character,  or  for  anything 
but  the  immediate  extension  of  their  trade. 

Mystical  fancies  about  destined  preemi 
nence  of  race  are  invented  to  sanction  con 
quest.  The  Anglo-Saxon  race,  we  are  told,  has 
been  marked  out  by  Nature  for  universal  rule, 
and  commissioned  to  impose  peace,  that  is  its 
own  supremacy,  upon  the  world.  Those  who 
can  cherish  such  an  idea  have  little  right  to 


46  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

sneer  at  the  political  metaphysics  of  the  De 
claration  of  Independence.  The  blood  of  the 
tribe  which  came  from  Germany  with  Hengst 
and  Horsa,  has  been  enormously  diluted,  even 
in  the  British  Islands.  Four- fifths  of  Ire 
land,  the  Highlands  of  Scotland,  Wales,  and 
much  of  the  extreme  west  of  England  are 
Celtic.  There  must  be  millions  of  Irish  or 
their  descendants  in  Great  Britain.  The  Scan 
dinavian,  Fleming,  and  French  Huguenot  have 
also  their  share  in  the  compound.  The  Brit 
ish  constitution  is  no  doubt  Teutonic,  but 
though  cast  in  the  mould  of  aboriginal  circum 
stance,  it  is  not  a  mystical  gift  of  blood.  In 
the  British  Colonies,  there  is  the  same  mix 
ture.  In  Canada,  there  is  a  large  body  of 
French.  In  the  population  of  the  United 
States,  the  restlessness  and  enterprise  of  half  a 
dozen  races  are  blended.  It  belongs  not  to  a 
tribe  but  to  humanity,  and  to  humanity,  not  to 
a  tribe,  ought  its  aspirations  and  its  policy  to 
belong.  If  the  dream  of  Anglo- Israel  is  fa 
tuous,  hardly  less  so  is  that  of  Anglo-Saxon 
domination. 

Never,  surely,  was  a  term  more  misapplied 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  47 

than  is  "  Expansion,"  when  it  is  applied  to  the 
annexation  of  a  country  so  many  thousands 
of  miles  off,  inhabited  by  a  totally  alien  and 
probably  restive  population,  and  presenting  not 
a  source  of  military  strength  but  a  point  of 
military  weakness.  Expansion  is  extension 
without  breach  of  continuity,  either  territo 
rial  or  of  any  other  kind.  Such  was  the 
incorporation  of  Louisiana;  such  was  the  in 
corporation  of  California.  The  clearest  and 
happiest  of  all  cases  of  Expansion  would  be 
Continental  Union,  if  ever,  with  the  good-will 
of  Canada  and  her  mother  country,  Conti 
nental  Union  should  take  place.  Not  only  are 
the  countries  conterminous  and  interlocked, 
but  their  population,  the  bulk  of  it  at  least,  is 
identical,  while  in  their  products  they  are  com 
plements  of  each  other;  Canada  supplying 
timber,  minerals,  and  water-power,  the  United 
States  manufacturing  on  a  large  scale.  The 
soundest  and  most  conservative  element  of  the 
United  States  would  be  reinforced  by  the 
fusion.  But  the  two  reproaches  of  statesman 
ship  are  the  dealing  of  British  statesmen 
with  the  Irish  question  and  the  dealing  of 


48  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

American  statesmen  with  the  question  of  Can 
ada.  Protectionism  has  now  laid  its  grasp  on 
the  policy  of  the  United  States,  and  while 
nature  proclaims  a  union,  Tariff  forbids  the 
banns. 

If  Americans  go  into  partnership  with 
British  Jingoism,  will  they  not  find  them 
selves  involved  in  an  undertaking  at  once 
extensive  and  foreign  to  their  interest  ?  After 
the  war  with  Napoleon  and  the  destruction 
of  the  European  navies  Great  Britain  was 
left  absolutely  mistress  of  the  sea.  This 
position,  no  longer  maintainable  since  the 
other  navies  have  grown  up,  Great  Britain 
is  still  struggling  to  maintain.  Her  widely 
scattered  possessions,  the  fruits  of  her  former 
predominance  at  sea,  compel  her  to  make 
the  effort.  For  anyone  of  her  rivals  she  may 
be  more  than  a  match;  by  greatly  strain 
ing  herself  and  burdening  her  people,  she 
may  be  a  match  for  any  two  of  them;  she 
cannot  be  a  match  for  them  all.  They  will 
combine  to  assert  the  independence  of  the 
seas.  The  Mediterranean,  as  England  already 
forebodes,  is  likely  to  be  the  first  scene  of 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  49 

such  a  conflict.  Would  it  be  possible  to 
draw  the  American  people  into  a  tremendous 
struggle  for  the  purpose  of  keeping  the 
Mediterranean  under  British  control  ? 

Commercial  gain  would  be  the  real  object, 
commercial  cupidity  would  be  the  sustaining 
principle,  of  the  league.  But  in  their  com 
mercial  policy  the  two  nations  at  present  are 
diametrically  opposed  to  each  other,  Great 
Britain  being  for  free  trade,  America  being 
for  protection.  That  Great  Britain  will  ever 
renounce  free  trade,  under  which  her  wealth 
has  increased  threefold,  seems  as  unlikely  as 
that  the  Thames  will  reverse  its  course.  Mut- 
terings  of  reaction,  political  rather  than  eco 
nomical  in  their  source,  and  local  rather  than 
national,  are  heard  from  time  to  time,  but 
they  die  away. 

A  league  between  two  States  in  different 
parts  of  the  globe,  bound  together  merely  by 
origin  or  language,  yet  sworn  to  fight  in 
each  other's  quarrels,  whatever  the  cause  was, 
would  be  a  conspiracy  against  international 
morality  and  the  independence  of  all  nations 
such  as  would  soon  compel  the  world  to 


50  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

take  arms  for  its  overthrow.  Nobody  would 
be  cajoled  by  such  phrases  as  "  spreading 
civilization "  or  "  imposing  universal  peace." 
The  world  does  not  want  to  have  anything 
imposed  on  it  by  an  Anglo-Saxon  league  or 
by  a  combination  of  any  kind. 

The  American  Constitution  is  not  suited 
for  playing  the  British  game.  In  England 
foreign  policy  remains  in  the  same  hands 
enough  to  preserve  its  continuity  and  the 
general  identity  of  its  aims.  A  Foreign  Min 
ister,  retiring  from  office,  still  sits  in  Parlia 
ment,  and  still  has  his  voice  in  the  councils 
of  the  State,  while  the  Foreign  Office  is 
largely  in  the  hands  of  permanent  officers  of 
the  highest  class.  But  an  American  Secre 
tary  of  State,  retiring  from  office,  hardly  ever 
takes  his  seat  in  Congress,  so  that  the  thread 
of  an  Imperialist  policy  would  be  abruptly 
broken  off  every  four  years,  and  there  could 
hardly  be  community  of  design  or  continu 
ous  cooperation  with  the  Foreign  Office  of 
Great  Britain.  Instead  of  unity  of  counsels, 
angry  divergence  might  result. 

Other    incongruities    subversive    of    union 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  51 

would  be  likely  to  crop  up  among  the  mem 
bers  of  this  vast  Anglo-Saxon  league.  Great 
Britain  is  conservative.  The  United  States 
are  not  socialistic.  In  Australia  and  New 
Zealand  legislative  socialism  is  strong  and 
apparently  on  the  increase.  An  English 
journalist,  visiting  a  British  colony,  could 
say  that  he  had  never  felt  himself  in  so  for 
eign  a  country;  and  though  the  expression 
was,  no  doubt,  rhetorical,  there  was  in  it  at 
least  a  grain  of  truth. 

At  this  particular  juncture,  from  pretty  ob 
vious  motives,  the  aristocratic  and  plutocratic 
party  in  England  is  enfolding  in  a  loving 
embrace  the  American  democracy  as  a  long- 
lost  member  of  the  family,  whose  relationship 
was  unfortunately  hidden  from  view  at  the 
crisis  of  Secession.  At  the  same  time  it  re 
mains  unchanged  and  propagates  its  political 
sentiment  in  Canada  through  its  Canadian  or 
gans  not  less  actively  than  before.  This  sudden 
impulse  may  be  transitory  as  well  as  sudden. 
It  is  said  that  the  Tory  Government  of  Great 
Britain  took  the  part  of  the  United  States 
in  the  councils  of  Europe  at  the  time  of  the 


52  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

war  with  Spain.  If  it  did,  the  occasion  was 
special  and  the  motive  here  again  was  one  on 
which  no  permanent  reliance  could  be  based. 

The  American  people  have  generally  gone 
rather  to  an  extreme  in  their  avowal  of  sym 
pathy  with  struggles  for  independence :  South 
American,  Polish,  Hungarian,  or  Irish.  To 
their  sympathy  with  the  Irish  struggle  for 
independence  they  even  sacrificed  their  grati 
tude  to  John  Bright.  Why  has  the  expression 
of  sympathy  with  the  struggle  of  the  South 
African  Commonwealths  for  their  existence 
been  less  heard?  The  answer  given  to  that 
question  by  an  Anti-Expansionist  was :  "  The 
blood  of  the  Filipinos  chokes  us." 

The  Republican  party  must  have  undergone 
a  curious  transformation.  Who  would  have 
supposed  forty  years  ago  that  it  could  become 
Imperialist  and  lean  towards  alliance  with  a 
party  in  England,  identical  with  that  which 
took  so  vehemently  the  side  of  the  South  at 
the  time  of  the  War  of  Secession  ?  Party 
government  in  the  United  States  seems  to 
assume  the  singular  form  of  two  great  stand 
ing  organizations,  recognized  by  the  law  and 


COMMONWEALTH    OR   EMPIRE  53 

almost  overlaying  the  Constitution,  which  re 
main  always  on  foot,  but  vary  their  attitude 
and  policy  before  each  presidential  election. 

If  the  Commonwealth  yearns  for  a  grander 
part,  a  grander  part  may  be  found,  not  in  part 
nership  with  aggressive  power,  but  rather  in 
morally  upholding  against  aggression  human 
independence  and  the  rights  of  every  member 
of  the  family  of  nations.  In  the  East,  the 
influence  of  the  Republic  must  be  greater  if 
she  stands  aloof  from  European  powers  to 
whose  aggressive  attitude  this  uprising  of 
Chinese  nationality  with  its  murderous  con 
sequences  is  due. 

A  part  of  the  dream  is  that  the  language 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  race  shall  become  uni 
versal.  It  is  a  trader's  idea.  The  English 
language,  with  all  its  noble  qualities,  the 
tongue  of  Shakespeare,  Bacon,  and  Burke 
though  it  is,  was  shattered  by  the  Norman 
Conquest,  and  has  no  terms  of  its  own  for 
science  or  philosophy,  but  is  compelled  for 
these  purposes  to  borrow,  and  very  awk 
wardly,  from  the  Greek.  Should  we  be  gainers 
if  the  dream  could  be  fulfilled,  if  all  litera- 


54  COMMONWEALTH    OR   EMPIRE 

tures  save  one  could  be  extinguished,  and 
all  diversities  of  mind  attendant  on  varieties 
of  speech  could  cease  ?  What  is  the  object 
of  rolling  everything  flat? 

It  was  beginning  to  be  thought  that  the 
time  had  come  when  small  nationalities  were  to 
be  swallowed  by  great  Empires.  Against  this 
the  Boer  and  Filipino  have  entered  protests 
of  which  humanity  will  hereafter  take  account. 
Upon  what,  except  mere  cupidity,  territorial 
or  commercial,  does  the  assumption  rest  ? 
Which  of  the  two,  dead  uniformity  or  emu 
lous  variety,  is  most  likely  to  conduce  to 
human  progress  and  to  enrich  the  human 
store  ?  Athens  and  Florence  were  small 
States.  So  was  Judaea.  So  wras  even  repub 
lican  Rome.  Holland  is  a  very  small  State 
compared  with  the  great  monarchies  of 
Europe.  Sweden  is  a  small  State,  yet,  under 
Gustavus  Adolphus,  she  saved  European  lib 
erty.  England  herself,  after  all,  apart  from 
Scotland  and  Ireland,  is  not  very  much  larger 
than  the  State  of  New  York.  Philip  II.  of 
Spain  thought  that  she  ought  to  be  appended 
to  his  colossal  realm. 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  55 

This  Imperialism  threatens  with  destruction 
the  wild  stocks  of  humanity.  A  camp  service 
of  silver  plate  was  dug  up  near  an  old  battle 
field  in  Germany.  It  was  supposed  to  be 
the  camp  service  of  Varus,  the  armed  mission 
ary  of  Roman  civilization  and  despotism,  who 
had  there  been  defeated  by  Arminius,  the 
champion  of  barbarism  and  national  indepen 
dence.  Suppose  civilization  had  triumphed  on 
that  field  and  slain  in  its  embryo  the  nation  of 
Luther,  Leibnitz,  Lessing,  Goethe,  Von  Hum- 
boldt,  and  Bismarck.  Who  shall  say  that  the 
uncivilized  or  half-civilized  races  now  being 
crushed  by  predatory  powers  in  different  parts 
of  the  world,  may  not  have  in  them  the  germs 
of  something  which,  spontaneously  developed, 
would  be  as  noble  and  worth  as  much  to 
humanity  as  any  of  the  powers  themselves? 
The  Boers  were  set  down  as  barbarians  stand 
ing  in  the  path  of  a  superior  civilization,  to 
which  it  was  in  the  order  of  Providence  that 
they  should  give  way.  Have  they  not  shown 
themselves  the  equals  of  their  conquerors  in 
all  that  makes  not  only  the  thews  and  sinews, 
but  the  heart  of  a  nation  ?  And  to  what  sort 


$6  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

of  civilization  is  it  that  they  are  to  give  place  ? 
Johannesburg  is  described  by  a  perfectly  trust 
worthy  witness  as  a  city  of  gambling-houses, 
saloons,  brothels,  and  prize-rings,  exceeding 
even  the  ordinary  depravity  of  gold-seeking 
settlements. 

To  open  areas  of  territory,  nature  beckons 
the  settler,  and  there  ambition  has  a  blameless 
and  beneficent  sphere.  Unluckily,  the  areas 
are  seldom  so  open  as  not  to  contain  a  native 
population.  Then,  there  is  too  apt  to  be  cruel 
work.  *  The  first  business  of  the  Colonist,'  it 
was  once  said,  'is  to  extirpate  the  wild  animals, 
and  of  the  wild  animals  the  most  noxious  is 
the  wild  man.'  Natives  have  been  killed  with 
poisoned  food.  The  civilized  power  sets  up 
its  flag.  If,  after  that,  the  native  presumptu 
ously  attempts  to  keep  his  land  to  himself, 
a  "  punitive  expedition "  goes  forth  with  fire 
and  sword.  The  effect  on  the  character  of 
the  Colonist  is  not  good.  Some  of  the  Afri 
can  tribes,  no  doubt,  the  Ashantis  for  example, 
are  detestably  savage.  Whether  their  savagery 
in  any  case  may  have  had  its  origin  in  the 
tribal  wars  kindled  by  the  slave-trader,  we  can- 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  57 

not  tell.  But  the  Maori,  in  New  Zealand,  seem 
to  have  been  not  less  capable  of  improvement 
than  the  bands  of  Hengst  and  Horsa,  or  those  of 
Clovis.  Yet  the  Maori  narrowly  escaped  extirpa 
tion.  Supposing  the  Filipinos  to  be  admitted 
to  the  advantages  of  peaceable  intercourse  and 
commerce,  is  there  any  reason  for  assuming  that 
they  would  be  incapable  of  advance  in  civiliza 
tion  ?  Japan  was  fortunate  enough  to  get  an 
independent  start;  otherwise  she  might  now 
be  classed  among  countries  which  "  Duty  tak 
ing  the  hand  of  Destiny"  has  marked  for  civ 
ilization  by  the  sword. 

Have  we  real  ground  in  reason  or  expe 
rience  for  believing  that  any  nation  can  suc 
ceed  in  forcibly  imparting  its  political  qualities 
to  another  nation,  or  in  bringing  another 
nation  by  force  up  to  its  own  stage  of  prog 
ress  ?  The  instruments  through  which  the 
tutelary  nation  must  act  are  almost  sure  to  be 
vitiated  by  the  very  process  of  their  employ 
ment.  Americans,  President  McKinley  said, 
would  not  change  their  character  at  the 
tropics.  He  probably  had  in  his  mind  a 
delegation  of  the  best  American  morality. 


58  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

But  Boston  does  not  go  to  Manila.  To 
Manila  go  rough  soldiers  and  commercial 
adventurers  probably  of  the  most  adventur 
ous  class.  There  have  been  complaints  of 
the  multiplication  of  the  haunts  of  dissipation 
and  vice,  while  in  the  coarser  minds  contact 
with  a  subject  and  despised  race  in  itself 
breeds  insolence  and,  too  often,  inhumanity. 
So  long  as  West  Point  governs  the  depend 
ency,  order  may  be  maintained  and  material 
improvement  may  be  enforced.  But  West 
Point  cannot  govern  forever. 

Empire  and  Emperor  are  Roman  names, 
and  the  tradition  of  Roman  Empire  still 
floats  before  the  fancy  of  modern  Imperial 
ists.  It  evidently  floated  before  the  fancy  of 
Napoleon  with  his  Senate,  his  Eagles,  and 
his  Legion  of  Honour.  Yet  nothing  can  more 
completely  belong  to  the  past.  The  Roman 
Empire  had  the  world,  the  civilized  world  at 
least,  or  what  was  the  same  thing,  the  world 
round  the  Mediterranean,  to  itself.  Its  domain, 
though  vast,  and  embracing  a  variety  of  races, 
was  within  a  ring  fence.  The  circumstances 
of  its  growth  and  organization  were  such  as 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  59 

have  never  since  existed,  and  can  never  again 
exist.  It  united  all  the  nations  within  its 
pale,  albeit  more  in  the  way  of  common 
subjection  than  of  brotherhood.  It  thus,  no 
doubt,  paved  the  way  for  the  spread  of  Chris 
tianity,  though  the  Gospel  owed  its  success 
largely  to  the  general  misery  which  made 
men,  despairing  of  this  world,  turn  their 
thoughts  to  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  Its 
great  merit  was  that  it  maintained  peace,  a 
peace,  however,  broken  by  the  German  war, 
the  British  war,  the  Jewish  war,  and  the  civil 
wars  in  the  time  of  Galba,  Otho,  and  Vitellius, 
as  well  as  by  border  wars  with  the  Parthians, 
Dacians,  and  other  tribes.  Jurisprudence  owed 
much  to  the  Empire,  but  not  its  birth ;  it  was 
born  with  the  Twelve  Tables,  and  might  trace 
its  origin  to  questions  of  right  between  differ 
ent  orders  which  arose  in  the  early  centuries 
of  the  Republic.  Monuments  of  a  less  salu 
tary  influence  than  that  to  which  we  owe  the 
Pandects  are  the  huge  substructions  of  the 
palace  of  the  Caesars  with  their  memories  of 
colossal  vice,  and,  hard  by,  the  vast  amphitheatre 
which  was  the  scene  of  gladiatorial  butcheries, 


60  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

and  the  centre  of  similar  butcheries  through 
out  the  Roman  world.  Literature  languished 
and  died.  The  people  of  the  Imperial  city 
became  a  debased,  debauched,  and  mendicant 
rabble.  The  place  of  nationalities,  some  of 
them  richly  endowed  and  promising,  which  had 
been  sacrificed  to  pile  up  the  Empire,  could  not 
be  filled  by  the  satellites  of  a  central  despotism. 
The  end  everywhere  was  decay,  moral,  politi 
cal,  and  social.  At  last  over  the  wide  expanse 
of  Imperial  corruption  bands  of  uncorrupted 
barbarians  stalked  as  conquerors  to  found  new 
nations. 

Contrast  the  work  done  for  humanity  by 
Rome  with  that  done  by  Tyre,  a  city  on  an 
island  less  than  three  miles  in  circumference, 
which,  as  the  soul  of  Phoenician  enterprise, 
linked  by  commerce  India,  perhaps  China,  to 
the  extreme  West,  and  if  it  did  not  give  us 
jurisprudence,  gave  us  the  alphabet,  that  is, 
the  possibility  of  literary  and  intellectual  life. 

Is  the  British  Empire  an  object  of  Ameri 
can  envy  and  emulation  ?  British  Empire  is 
a  fallacious  term.  The  relation  of  Great 
Britain  to  the  self-governing  colonies,  Can- 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  6 1 

ada,  Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  is  not  im 
perial.  This  the  colonies  have  plainly  shown 
by  laying  protective  duties  on  British  goods. 
Australia  is  now  showing  it  by  proposing  to 
exclude  British  contract  labour,  and  to  close 
herself  against  all  the  coloured  subjects  of 
his  Majesty,  that  is,  about  five-sixths  of  the 
population  of  his  Majesty's  dominions.  In 
the  self-governing  colonies  Great  Britain  re 
tains  only  the  appointment  of  a  Governor, 
who  represents  the  King,  and,  like  the  King, 
reigns,  but  does  not  govern ;  a  precarious 
command  of  the  militia;  an  appellate  juris 
diction,  the  bounds  of  which  are  being  con 
stantly  narrowed;  and  the  distribution  of 
Peerages,  Baronetcies,  Knighthoods  and  mil 
itary  decorations.  The  most  effective  of  the 
prerogatives  is  perhaps  the  last.  The  Imperial 
country  was  till  lately  burdened  with  the  entire 
defence  of  the  colonies,  while  with  their  entire 
naval  defence  she  is  burdened  still ;  and  in 
regard  to  military  defence  they  still  fall  far 
short  of  anything  like  an  equal  contribution. 
As  dependencies,  colonies  have  been  to  Great 
Britain  a  heavy  financial  loss.  "  The  expense 


62  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

of  the  peace  establishment  of  the  colonies,"  says 
Adam  Smith,  "  was  before  the  commencement  of 
the  present  disturbances  [the  quarrel  with  the 
American  colonists]  very  considerable,  and  is  an 
expense  which  may  and,  if  no  revenue  can  be 
drawn  from  them,  ought  certainly  to  be  saved 
altogether.  This  constant  expense  in  time 
of  peace,  though  very  great,  is  insignificant 
in  comparison  with  what  the  defence  of  the 
colonies  has  cost  us  in  time  of  war.  The 
last  war,  which  was  undertaken  altogether  on 
account  of  the  colonies,  cost  Great  Britain,  it 
has  already  been  observed,  upwards  of  ninety 
millions.  The  Spanish  war  of  1739  was  prin 
cipally  undertaken  on  their  account,  in  which, 
and  in  the  French  war  that  was  the  conse 
quence  of  it,  Great  Britain  spent  upwards  of 
forty  millions,  a  great  part  of  which  ought 
justly  to  be  charged  to  the  colonies.  In 
those  two  wars  the  colonies  cost  Great  Brit 
ain  much  more  than  double  the  sum  which 
the  national  debt  amounted  to  before  the 
commencement  of  the  first  of  them."  Many 
millions  were  expended  in  Kaffir  and  Maori 
wars,  which  the  colonists  would  probably  have 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  63 

avoided  by  wise  treatment  of  the  natives,  had 
the  Imperial  troops  been  out  of  the  way. 
A  thousand  millions  of  dollars  are  spent,  thou 
sands  of  British  lives  are  sacrificed,  the  power 
of  the  nation  is  overstrained,  and  a  perilous 
amount  of  odium  is  incurred  for  an  exten 
sion  of  dominion  in  South  Africa  from 
which  the  Imperial  country  will  not  derive 
pecuniary  tribute  or  military  strength.  Yet 
all  the  time  a  vague  belief  that  the  colonial 
dependencies  were  sources  both  of  strength 
and  profit  has  kept  possession  of  the  British 
mind. 

We  are  now  dreaming  of  Imperial  Federa 
tion,  but  our  vision  has  not  yet  taken  any  prac 
tical  or  even  definite  form.  We  have  never 
been  told,  at  least  with  any  sort  of  concurrence 
or  authority,  how  the  Parliament  of  the  Em 
pire  is  to  be  composed ;  what  are  to  be  its 
functions;  how  its  edicts  and  requisitions  are 
to  be  enforced ;  what  are  to  be  its  relations  to 
the  British  Crown  and  Foreign  Office ;  or  by 
what  tribunal  its  constitution  is  to  be  inter 
preted  and  preserved.  Nor  have  we  been  told 
what  is  to  be  done  with  India,  to  hand  which 


64  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

over  to  a  great  Federal  Assembly,  comprising 
ultra-democratic  delegations,  would  be  a  des 
perate  measure  indeed.  Australian  Federa 
tion,  instead  of  being  a  step  towards  Imperial 
Federation,  is  a  step  the  other  way,  since  it 
enlarges  and  consolidates  Colonial  self-govern 
ment.  However,  nothing  analogous  to  the 
relation  between  Great  Britain  and  her  self- 
governing  Colonies  is  likely  to  be  formed  in 
the  case  of  the  United  States.  The  example 
is  useful  only  as  a  warning  against  Imperial 
illusions.  Everything  that  Great  Britain  has 
got  from  the  Colonies  as  dependencies,  and 
more,  she  might  have  got  from  them  as  inde 
pendent  nations,  without  the  danger  and  the 
enormous  expense. 

To  India   the   relation  of    Great  Britain    is 
v 

really  Imperial.  In  the  dissolution  of  the 
Mogul  Empire,  a  trading  company  armed,  as 
trading  companies  at  the  time  and  in  those 
regions  had  need  to  be,  acquired  territorial 
dominion,  which  its  servants  at  first  grievously 
abused.  The  British  Government  stepped  in 
and  placed  the  Company,  as  a  political  power, 
under  control.  At  the  same  time,  Parliament 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  65 

emphatically  abjured  and  prohibited  the  exten 
sion  of  British  dominion  in  India.  British 
dominion  in  India  nevertheless  continued  to  be 
extended,  chiefly  by  collision  with  anarchic 
and  predatory  powers,  till  Lord  Wellesley,  an 
ambitious  Governor-General,  formally  founded 
the  Indian  Empire.  Extension  still  went  on 
in  the  same  manner  as  before,  and  was  com 
pleted  by  the  defeat  of  the  invading  Sikhs  and 
the  conquest  of  the  Punjaub.  There  followed 
the  great  mutiny  of  the  Company's  soldiers,  the 
Sepoys,  provoked  by  a  careless  infraction 
of  their  caste.  After  the  suppression  of  the 
mutiny,  the  Company  was  abolished,  and  its 
dominions  were  taken  over  by  the  Imperial 
Government  and  added  to  those  of  the  Crown. 
This  measure  was  viewed  at  the  time  with 
misgiving  by  Liberals  like  John  Stuart  Mill, 
who  feared,  on  one  hand,  the  contagious  influ 
ence  of  the  vast  dependency  on  British  institu 
tions,  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  interference 
of  British  politics  with  the  affairs  of  the  depend 
ency.  By  the  wise  policy  which  gave  India 
a  ruler  entirely  separate,  though  responsible  to 
the  British  Parliament  and  Government,  and 


66  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

a  Civil  Service  of  its  own,  appointed  not  by 
patronage  but  by  competitive  examination, 
these  fears  appeared  to  have  been  laid  to  rest. 
But  the  Queen  desired  the,,  title  of  Empress, 
which  was  given  her  by  Disraeli,  and  the 
result  has  been  a  perceptible,  though  indefin 
able,  accession  of  strength  to  the  Imperial 
idea.  There  is  a  growing  tendency  in 
certain  quarters  to  substitute  the  character  of 
Emperor  for  that  of  King.  The  title  itself, 
which  at  the  time  of  its  assumption,  Parliament 
was  assured,  would  never  be  introduced  into 
the  United  Kingdom,  is  creeping  in,  that 
promise  notwithstanding.  The  fears  of  Mill 
and  other  Liberals  who  looked  with  misgiving 
on  the  change  from  the  Company  to  the  Crown, 
may  after  all  prove  not  to  have  been  wholly 
unfounded. 

To  strike  the  balance  of  profit  and  loss, 
either  on  the  side  of  the  conqueror  or  on  that 
of  the  conquered,  would  not  be  easy.  India  has 
long  ceased  to  be  to  the  conqueror  a  field  of 
plunder.  She  has  never  paid  tribute ;  but  she 
has  furnished  honourable  appointments,  with 
high  salaries  and  pensions,  to  a  great  number 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  6/ 

of  Englishmen.  Her  public  works  have  given 
employment  to  others.  English  capital  has 
been  profitably  invested  in  her  railways.  Her 
trade,  though  opened  by  the  liberal  policy  of 
Great  Britain  to  the  whole  world,  has  been 
practically  for  the  most  part  in  British  hands. 
That  she  has  supplied  England  with  great 
men  has  been  said,  but  is  not  the  fact,  since 
the  man  who  has  spent  the  prime  of  his  life  in 
India  is  not  good  for  much  when  he  comes 
home.  Some  British  generals,  Wellington 
among  the  number,  have  been  trained  in 
Indian  fields.  On  the  wrong  side  of  the  bal 
ance-sheet  are  the  expense  and  danger  of  hold 
ing  and  guarding  this  distant,  and  in  itself 
defenceless,  Empire.  In  this  item  must  be 
comprised,  in  large  measure,  not  only  the 
Crimean  War,  but  this  war  in  South  Africa, 
since  the  only  real  interest  which  Great  Brit 
ain  has  in  that  quarter  is  secure  possession  of 
a  port  on  the  route  to  India,  in  case  of  the 
Suez  Canal  being  closed  by  war.  England 
has  plenty  of  fields  for  colonization  elsewhere, 
and  she  has  no  use  whatever  for  the  veldt. 
For  the  sake  of  India,  Russia  has  been  made 


68  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

an  enemy  when  she  was,  and  might  have 
remained,  a  fast  friend.  In  case  of  war  in 
Europe,  it  would  be  necessary  to  send  a  part 
of  the  British  navy  and  army  to  the  other  side 
of  the  globe  for  the  defence  of  Hindostan. 
Nor  is  it  a  matter  of  slight  account,  that 
British  regiments  are  constantly  exposed  to 
the  evils,  moral  as  well  as  physical,  of  quarters 
in  a  tropical  climate  amidst  strong  temptations 
to  vice.  So  shrewd  a  judge  as  Nassau  Senior, 
the  author  of  "  Conversations  with  European 
Statesmen,"  when  he  was  told  that  the 
strength  of  England  was  deemed  to  be  in 
India,  replied :  "  There  cannot  be  a  greater 
mistake.  If  we  were  well  quit  of  India,  we 
should  be  much  stronger  than  we  are  now. 
The  difficulty  is  how  to  get  well  quit  of  it." 
To  the  conquered,  the  conqueror  has  given 
peace,  and  since  the  repression  of  the  early 
abuses,  a  pure,  skilful,  and  benevolent  admin 
istration,  with  upright  courts  of  justice.  Noth 
ing  in  the  policy  of  conquerors  vies  in  good 
intentions  with  British  administration  of  India. 
Mistakes  there  were  at  first.  Zemindars,  who 
were  merely  district  farmers  of  taxes,  were 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  69 

mistaken  for  landlords  like  those  of  England, 
and  the  peasant-proprietors  were  saddled  with 
a  landed  aristocracy  of  extortionate  drones. 
But  of  late,  native  character  and  ideas  have 
been  carefully  studied,  some  of  the  best  intel 
lects  of  England  being  devoted  to  the  task. 
Natives  have  been  admitted  to  the  adminis 
tration,  both  municipal  and  general,  as  well  as 
to  the  judiciary,  though  not  to  a  share  of  the 
supreme  power  or  to  military  commands. 
Efforts  have  been  made  by  the  foundation  of 
colleges  and  schools  to  introduce  into  India 
the  science  and  learning  of  the  West.  A  sur 
prising  amount  of  freedom  has  been  conceded 
to  the  native  press.  The  native  religions  have 
been  strictly  respected.  At  the  same  time, 
Christianity  has  been  zealously  preached. 
Vicious  customs,  such  as  Suttee,  have  been 
abolished,  and  criminal  associations,  such  as 
Thuggee,  have  been  put  down.  Infanticide 
has  been  prohibited  and  reduced.  Something 
has  been  done  in  the  way  of  sanitation.  Man 
ufactures  have  been  developed,  though  they 
compete  with  those  of  the  Imperial  country. 
If  the  conqueror  were  now  to  depart,  railroads, 


70  COMMONWEALTH    OR   EMPIRE 

telegraphs,  and  irrigation  works  would  remain 
the  beneficent  monuments  of  his  rule.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  annual  drain  on  Hindostan 
must  be  heavy.  There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  the  cost  of  the  foreign  government  and  of 
its  public  works  is  too  great  for  the  country, 
which,  though  gorgeous,  is  poor.  The  state 
of  the  peasantry  is  by  most  independent  wit 
nesses  described  as  generally  unhopeful.  The 
land  tax  is  said  to  bear  hard  on  them.  It 
would  seem  that  they  can  have  no  savings  or 
property,  since  a  drought  suffices  to  reduce  so 
many  millions  of  them  to  an  utter  destitution, 
with  which  the  government  heroically  con 
tends.  The  participation  of  natives  in  the 
government  is  by  some  observers  described  as 
unreal.  Those  educated  in  the  colleges,  cul 
tivated  Baboos  as  they  are  called,  are  said  to 
be  merely  an  artificial  caste  of  intellect  little 
sympathizing  with  or  acting  on  the  masses. 
The  people  in  general  seem  to  be  human 
sheep,  without  power  of  self-guidance  or  self- 
help.  Native  effort,  like  native  art,  has  lost  its 
spring;  there  can  no  more  be  another  Akbar 
than  another  Taj.  If  the  aim  of  British  rule 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  71 

is  to  turn  Orientals  into  Europeans,  it  has  so 
far  been  a  glorious  disappointment.  Chris 
tianity  has  made  comparatively  little  progress, 
nor  is  it  likely  to  make  more,  when  belief  in  it 
fails  at  home.  Union  of  the  races  is  impos 
sible,  as  the  ruling  race  is  incapable  of  accli 
matization,  and  the  social  gulf  between  them 
has  been  widened  since  rapid  communication 
has  kept  the  Englishman  in  more  constant 
connection  with  his  home.  The  Englishman 
looks  down  upon  the  Hindoo ;  the  Hindoo 
fears  and  respects  the  Englishman,  but  loves 
him  not.  All  British  reverses  seem  to  be 
cherished  in  the  native  memory.  If  the  British 
were  now  to  withdraw  from  India,  a  murderous 
anarchy,  ending  in  Mahometan  tyranny,  would 
probably  be  the  result.  Yet  British  officials 
do  not  pretend  to  believe  that  the  dominion 
of  a  race  incapable  of  acclimatization  over 
a  distant  Empire  can  last  forever.  What  the 
end  will  be,  none  of  them  undertake  to  foretell. 
The  Sepoy  Mutiny  and  its  suppression 
brought  out  with  terrible  clearness  the  an 
tagonism  of  race  and  the  cruel  contempt  of 
the  conqueror  for  the  conquered.  The  atroc- 


72  COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE 

ities  committed  by  the  Sepoys  at  Cawnpore 
were  repaid  with  fearful  interest.  Not  muti 
neers  only,  but  people  of  Oudh,  then  a  newly 
annexed  principality,  who  had  risen  in  the 
cause  of  their  native  dynasty,  were  put  to 
the  sword.  Lord  Elgin,  the  ex-Governor- 
General  of  Canada,  was  at  Calcutta  at  the 
time.  In  his  journal,  he  says :  — 

"  —  -  tells  me  that  yesterday,  at  dinner,  the  fact, 
that  Government  had  removed  some  commissioners 
who,  not  content  with  hanging  all  the  rebels  they 
could  lay  their  hands  on,  had  been  insulting  them  by 
destroying  their  caste,  telling  them  that  after  death 
they  should  be  cast  to  the  dogs  to  be  devoured,  etc., 
was  mentioned.  A  reverend  gentleman  could  not 
understand  the  conduct  of  Government;  could  not 
see  that  there  was  any  impropriety  in  torturing  men's 
souls ;  seemed  to  think  a  good  deal  might  be  said  in 
favour  of  bodily  torture  as  well!  These  are  your 
teachers,  O  Israel !  Imagine  what  the  pupils  become 
under  such  leading  !  " 

Part  of  an  order  issued  by  the  British  Com 
mandant  at  Cawnpore  for  the  punishment  of 
Sepoys  implicated  in  the  massacre  was :  — 

"  Each  miscreant,  after  sentence  of  death  is  pro 
nounced  upon  him,  will  be  taken  down  to  the  house 
in  question  under  a  guard,  and  will  be  forced  into 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  73 

cleaning  up  a  small  portion  of  the  blood  stains.  The 
task  will  be  made  as  revolting  to  his  feelings  as  pos 
sible,  and  the  Provost  Marshal  will  use  the  lash  in 
forcing  anyone  objecting  to  complete  his  task.'' 

The  same  officer,  a  man  of  high  character, 
not  otherwise  noted  for  inhumanity,  proposed 
impaling  and  burning  alive. 

Lord  Elgin  says :  — 

"  It  is  a  terrible  business,  however,  this  living 
among  inferior  races.  I  have  seldom  from  man  or 
woman  since  I  came  to  the  East  heard  a  sentence 
which  was  reconcilable  with  the  hypothesis  that 
Christianity  had  ever  come  into  the  world.  Detes 
tation,  contempt,  ferocity,  vengeance,  whether  China 
men  or  Indians  be  the  object.  There  are  some  three 
or  four  hundred  servants  in  this  house.  When  one 
first  passes  by  their  salaaming  one  feels  a  little  awk 
ward.  But  the  feeling  soon  wears  off,  and  one  moves 
among  them  with  perfect  indifference,  treating  them, 
not  as  dogs,  because  in  that  case  one  would  whistle 
to  them  and  pat  them,  but  as  machines  with  which 
one  can  have  no  communion  or  sympathy.  Of  course 
those  who  can  speak  the  language  are  somewhat 
more  en  rapport  with  the  natives,  but  very  slightly 
so,  I  take  it.  When  the  passions  of  fear  and  hatred 
are  engrafted  on  this  indifference,  the  result  is  fright 
ful,  —  an  absolute  callousness  as  to  the  sufferings  of 
the  objects  of  those  passions,  which  must  be  witnessed 
to  be  understood  and  believed." 


74  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

If  nothing  so  horrible  as  the  Sepoy  Mutiny 
and  its  repression  has  yet  occurred  in  Ameri 
can  subjugation  of  the  Filipinos,  it  seems  to 
be  well  attested  that  Filipinos  have  been  tor 
tured  to  make  them  give  up  their  hidden  arms, 
while  the  language  of  some  of  the  soldiers 
engaged  in  the  work  of  subjugation  has  been 
reckless  and  ruthless  in  the  extreme.  On 
the  other  hand,  the  Filipinos  are  accused  of 
burying  American  prisoners  alive.  Is  this 
the  promised  reign  of  "law,  liberty,  and  jus 
tice  "  ?  Will  the  character  of  the  conquerors 
remain  untainted  by  this  competition  in  cruelty 
with  a  half-civilized  race  ? 

For  a  further  lesson  on  the  subject  of  Empire 
in  its  dealings  with  the  weaker  or  more  back 
ward  races,  we  may  follow  Lord  Elgin  to  China, 
whither  he  is  sent,  as  an  emissary  of  Empire, 
to  enforce  demands  in  connection  with  the 
war  waged  by  Great  Britain  to  satisfy  the 
cravings  of  her  Indian  exchequer  by  forcing 
opium  upon  the  Chinese,  —  another  item  on  the 
wrong  side  in  the  account  of  British  Em 
pire  in  India.  Lord  Elgin,  a  man  eminently 
honourable  and  humane,  executed  his  com- 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  75 

mission  as  mercifully  as  he  could.  Yet  the 
innocent  and  unresisting  city  of  Canton,  with 
its  dense  population,  was  bombarded  for 
twenty-seven  hours.  Some  passages  in  Lord 
Elgin's  journal  are  suggestive,  and  have  a 
special  interest  at  this  time. 

"December  22d  [1857].  —  On  the  afternoon  of 
the  2Oth  I  got  into  a  gunboat  with  Commodore 
Elliot,  and  went  a  short  way  up  towards  the  barrier 
forts,  which  were  last  winter  destroyed  by  the  Ameri 
cans.  When  we  reached  this  point,  all  was  so  quiet 
that  we  determined  to  go  on,  and  we  actually  steamed 
past  the  city  of  Canton,  along  the  whole  front,  within 
pistol-shot  of  the  town,  A  line  of  English  men-of- 
war  are  now  anchored  there  in  front  of  the  town.  I 
never  felt  so  ashamed  of  myself  in  my  life,  and  Elliot 
remarked  that  the  trip  seemed  to  have  made  me  sad. 
There  we  were,  accumulating  the  means  of  destruc 
tion  under  the  very  eyes  and  within  the  reach  of  a 
population  of  about  one  million  people,  against  whom 
these  means  of  destruction  were  to  be  employed ! 
'  Yes,'  I  said  to  Elliot,  '  I  am  sad,  because  when  I 
look  at  the  town,  I  feel  that  I  am  earning  for  myself 
a  place  in  the  litany,  immediately  after  "  plague,  pes 
tilence,  and  famine."'  I  believe,  however,  that,  as 
far  as  I  am  concerned,  it  was  impossible  for  me  to 
do  otherwise  than  as  I  have  done.  I  could  not  have 
abandoned  the  demand  to  enter  the  city  after  what 


76  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

happened  last  winter  without  compromising  our  posi 
tion  in  China  altogether,  and  opening  the  way  to 
calamities  even  greater  than  those  now  before  us.  I 
made  my  demands  on  Yeh  as  moderate  as  I  could,  so 
as  to  give  him  a  chance  of  accepting,  although,  if  he 
had  accepted,  I  knew  that  I  should  have  brought  on 
my  head  the  imprecations  both  of  the  navy  and  army 
and  of  the  civilians,  the  time  being  given  by  the 
missionaries  and  the  women." 

"  H.M.S.  Furious,  Swatow.  —  March  5th  [1858].  — 
.  .  .  The  settlement  here  is  against  treaty.  It  con 
sists  mainly  of  agents  of  the  two  great  opium-houses, 
Dent  and  Jardine,  with  their  hangers-on.  This,  with 
a  considerable  business  in  the  coolie  trade, — which 
consists  in  kidnapping  wretched  coolies,  putting  them 
on  board  ships  where  all  the  horrors  of  the  slave- 
trade  are  reproduced,  and  sending  them  on  specious 
promises  to  such  places  as  Cuba,  —  is  the  chief  busi 
ness  of  the  'foreign  '  merchants  at  Swatow." 

"...  I  do  not  know  that  I  carried  much  away 
with  me,  except  the  general  impression  that  our 
trade  is  carried  on  on  principles  which  are  dishon 
est  as  regards  the  Chinese  and  demoralizing  to  our 
own  people." 

"  The  state  of  Ningpo  in  this  respect  furnishes 
their  favourite  and,  perhaps,  most  plausible  argu 
ment  to  that  class  of  persons  who  advocate  what  is 
styled  a  vigorous  policy  in  China ;  in  other  words, 
a  policy  which  consists  in  resorting  to  the  most 


COMMONWEALTH   OR  EMPIRE  77 

violent  measures  of  coercion  and  repression  on  the 
slenderest  provocations." 

"March  29th  [1858].  —  I  shall  be  a  little  curious 
to  see  my  next  letters.  The  truth  is,  that  the  whole 
world  just  now  are  raving  mad  with  a  passion  for 
killing  and  slaying,  and  it  is  difficult  for  a  person 
in  his  sober  senses,  like  myself,  to  keep  his  own 
among  them." 

"  Unless  I  am  greatly  misinformed,  many  vile  and 
reckless  men,  protected  by  the  privileges  to  which  I 
have  referred,  and  still  more  the  terror  which  British 
prowess  has  inspired,  are  now  infesting  the  coasts  of 
China.  It  may  be  that  for  the  moment  they  are 
able,  in  too  many  cases,  to  perpetrate  the  worst 
crimes  with  impunity;  but  they  bring  discredit  on 
the  Christian  name;  inspire  hatred  of  the  foreigner 
where  no  such  hatred  exists ;  and,  as  some  recent 
instances  prove,  teach  occasionally  to  the  natives  a 
lesson  of  vengeance,  which,  when  once  learnt,  may 
not  always  be  applied  with  discrimination." 

Lord  Elgin's  words  have  the  greater  weight 
from  his  having  been  not  a  British  politician 
so  much  as  a  servant  of  the  Empire. 

One  after  another  these  Empires  are  formed. 
One  after  another  they  pass  in  long  procession 
over  the  scene  of  history  to  their  inevitable 


78  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

grave.  The  same  end  awaited  the  Empires 
of  the  Assyrian,  the  Babylonian,  the  Mede, 
the  Persian,  the  Macedonian,  the  Roman,  the 
Frank,  the  Saracen,  the  Spaniard,  the  Bour 
bon,  that  of  Napoleon.  All  were  artificial, 
and,  whatever  transient  purposes  they  might 
serve,  had  in  them  from  the  beginning  the 
seeds  of  decay  and  death.  But  to  the  life  of 
a  nation  nature  seems  to  have  set  no  bound. 
It  may  languish,  but  it  does  not  expire,  and 
one  day  its  vigour  returns. 

Spain  was  once  what  England  is  now,  the 
mightiest  of  European  nations  and  the  terror 
of  the  world.  She  sank  into  impotence  under 
the  weight  of  despotism,  a  dominant  priest 
hood,  and  a  multitude  of  dependencies.  His 
torians  begin  the  reign  of  Philip  II.  with  the 
resounding  roll  of  the  kingdoms,  provinces, 
colonies,  and  fortresses  of  which  he  was  lord 
in  all  parts  of  the  globe.  "  He  possessed  in 
Europe  the  kingdoms  of  Castile,  Aragon,  and 
Navarre;  those  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  Milan, 
Sardinia,  Roussillon,  the  Balearic  Islands,  the 
Low  Countries,  and  Franche  Comte;  on  the 
western  coast  of  Africa  he  held  the  Canaries, 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  79 

Cape  Verd,  Oran,  Bujeya,  and  Tunis;  in  Asia 
he  held  the  Philippines  and  a  part  of  the 
Moluccas ;  in  the  new  world  the  immense 
kingdoms  of  Mexico,  Peru,  and  Chili,  and  the 
provinces  conquered  in  the  last  years  of 
Charles  V.,  besides  Cuba,  Hispaniola,  and 
other  islands  and  possessions ;  while  mar 
riage  with  the  Queen  of  England  placed  in 
his  hands  the  power  and  resources  of  that 
kingdom.  So  that  it  might  well  be  said  that 
the  sun  never  set  in  the  dominions  of  the 
king  of  Spain,  and  that  at  the  least  move 
ment  of  that  nation  the  whole  world  trem 
bled."  It  is  needless  to  rehearse  the  tale  of 
decay,  ruin,  and  degradation  which  is  opened 
by  this  proud  page.  The  vaunted  magnitude 
of  the  Empire  was  draining  away  the  life-blood 
of  the  nation.  Only  since  the  Empire  was 
lost  has  there  been  something  like  a  return 
of  national  life  to  Spain. 

To  British  Empire,  as  to  the  rest,  a  term 
is  probably  set  by  fate.  Its  dominions,  un 
like  those  of  Rome,  are  widely  scattered,  and 
include,  with  other  varieties  and  repugnances 
of  race,  three  hundred  millions  of  unassimi- 


80  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

lated  and  unassimilable  Hindoos.  England 
is  being  overstrained  in  the  desperate  effort 
to  remain,  as  she  was  when  the  other  navies 
had  been  annihilated  at  St.  Vincent,  Camper- 
down,  Trafalgar  and  Copenhagen,  mistress  of 
all  the  seas.  Her  people  will  awake  from 
their  dream  of  imposing  peace  upon  the 
world.  The  military  power  which  she  has 
created  in  Egypt  will  some  day  strike  for 
itself,  and  she  will  retire,  leaving,  however, 
behind  solid  monuments  of  a  beneficent  ad 
ministration.  The  Mediterranean  nations  will 
assert  the  freedom  of  their  waters,  and  Gib 
raltar,  the  value  of  which  is  already  being 
seriously  called  in  question,  will  return  to  the 
nation  to  which  it  naturally  belongs.  The 
colonies,  following  each  of  them  its  own  des 
tiny,  will  become  free  nations,  the  genuine 
glory  of  their  parent,  still,  perhaps,  remaining 
united  to  her  by  a  tie  of  mutual  citizenship, 
so  that  a  Canadian  landing  in  England  may 
at  once  enjoy  the  British  franchise.  The 
people  will  return  to  peaceful  industry,  and 
their  earnings  will  no  longer  be  taken  from 
them  for  the  objects  of  a  chimerical  ambition 


COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE  8 1 

and  the  barren  service  of  war.  There  will  be 
an  end  of  such  phrases  as  "  Greater  Britain " 
and  "  Little  Englander."  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  true  greatness  as  well  as  the  happi 
ness  of  England  is  not  in  dominion  over 
subject  races,  but  in  herself. 


In  these  last  pages  the  writer  may  seem  to 
have  turned  aside  from  his  subject.  But  no 
speculative  arguments  of  his  can  have  half  so 
much  weight  as  the  lessons  of  experience ;  nor 
is  there  any  experience  so  apposite  or  so  in 
structive  as  that  of  the  British  Empire,  of  all 
Empires  the  best  administered,  and  on  the 
whole  the  most  successful.  The  tribes  of  the 
Philippines  do  not  appear  to  be  more  tractable 
than  the  mild  Hindoo.  That  insurrection 
among  them  can  find  leaders  has  been  proved 
by  the  career  of  Aguinaldo.  American  insti 
tutions  do  not  lend  themselves,  like  British 
institutions,  to  the  vice-regal  government  of 
dependencies  with  a  separate  civil  service,  and 
there  would  be  greater  danger  of  political  cor 
ruption.  There  would  also  be  a  far  greater 


82  COMMONWEALTH   OR   EMPIRE 

shock  to  the  principles  of  the  republican  than 
there  is  to  those  of  the  monarchical  nation. 

The  sun  of  humanity  is  behind  a  cloud. 
The  cloud  will  pass  away  and  the  sun  will 
shine  forth  again.  The  aged  will  not  live  to 
see  it,  but  younger  men  will 


Works  by  Professor  Goldwin  Smith 

THE  UNITED  KINGDOM 
A  Political  History 

Cloth  8vo  2  Volumes  $4.00 


Professor  Smith  has  treated  his  second  work  with  the  same 
succinctness,  and  with  the  same  epigrammatic  force  and 
weight,  as  he  did  his  work  on  the  United  States,  which  The 
Nation  characterized  as  "  a  literary  masterpiece,  as  readable 
as  a  novel,  remarkable  for  its  compression  without  dryness, 
and  its  brilliancy  without  any  rhetorical  effort  or  display" 

"  Professor  Smith's  attractive  style  has  often  been  commented  on  as 
'simple,  unaffected,  and  always  lucid.'" — Times-Herald,  Chicago. 

"  The  author  1  as,  as  those  who  know  him  do  not  need  to  be  told,  a  style 
which  is  nothing  less  than  fascinating  ;  ...  its  lucidity,  its  graphic  narration, 
its  constant  avoidance  of  even  an  approach  to  dulness,  are  quite  as  remarkable 
as  its  incisiveness  of  judgment  and  originality  of  view." —  Providence  Journal. 


THE  UNITED  STATES 

An  Outline  of  Political  History,  J492-J87J 

With  Map  Crown  8vo  $2.00 


"  His  survey  of  events  is  luminous,  his  estimate  of  character  is  singularly 
keen  and  just,  and  his  style  is  at  once  incisive,  dignified,  and  scholarly.  .  .  . 
No  one  who  takes  up  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith's  volume  will  readily  lay  it  down 
before  he  has  finished  it  ;  no  one  will  lay  it  down  without  acknowledging 
the  rare  gifts  of  the  writer."  —  The  Times. 

"  It  is  a  literary  masterpiece,  as  readable  as  a  novel,  remarkable  for  its 
compression  without  dryness,  and  its  brilliancy  without  any  rhetorical  effort 
or  display.  What  American  could,  with  so  broad  a  grasp  and  so  perfect  a 
style,  have  rehearsed  our  political  history  from  Columbus  to  Grant  in  300 
duodecimo  pages  of  open  type,  or  would  have  manifested  greater  candor  in 
his  judgment  of  men  and  events  in  a  period  of  four  centuries  ?  It  is  enough 
to  say  that  no  one  before  Mr.  Smith  has  attempted  the  feat,  and  that  he  has 
the  field  to  himself."—  The  Nation. 


THE    MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

66  FIFTH  AVENUE,   NEW  YORK 


Works  by  Professor  Goldwin  Smith 
ESSAYS  ON  QUESTIONS  OF  THE  DAY 

Political  and  Social 

By  GOLDWIN    SMITH,    D.CX. 

NEW,  REVISED,  AND  ENLARGED  EDITION 

i2mo  Cloth  $2.25 


"  These  questions  —  for,  as  will  be  seen,  there  are  many  comprised  under 
one  head  —  are  all  treated  in  Professor  Smith's  latest  volume  with  the  clear 
ness  and  force  which  belong  to  all  his  writings."  —  The  Critic. 

"  The  book  is  admirably  concise  in  method,  often  epigrammatic  in  the 
sweeping  generalizations.  The  method  is  modern,  moreover,  in  that  it  takes 
account  of  social  forms  and  prejudices,  of  popular  thought,  in  short,  as  well 
as  of  the  political  plans  of  the  few  so-called  leaders  of  men." 

—  HAMLIN  GARLAND  in  The  Arena. 


A    TRIP    TO    ENGLAND 

NEW  AND  REVISED  EDITION 
Cloth  i8mo  75  cents 


"  So  delightful  a  cicerone  as  Mr.  Goldwin  Smith  proves  himself  in 
1  A  Trip  to  England  '  does  not  often  fall  to  the  lot  of  the  non-personally  con 
ducted.  .  .  .  Meissonier-like  in  its  diminutiveness,  but  also  Meissonier-like 
in  its  mastery." —  The  Critic. 


CANADA  AND  THE  CANADIAN  QUESTION 

Cloth  8vo  $2.00 


GUESSES  AT  THE  RIDDLE  OF  EXISTENCE 

And  Other  Kindred  Subjects 
Cloth  1 2  mo  $1.25 


SPECIMENS  OF  GREEK  TRAGEDY 

a  Volumes  i6mo  Buckram  $1.25  each 

Vol.  I.  — Aeschylus  and  Sophocles        Vol.  n.  —  Euripides 


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